better stay healthy you old bastards

 corporate sponsored 
retiree health plans ?

shit
are they 
 lookin like  dodos


 (  nurse steve 
 posted thiz )



===========================

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 - 

A study, 
issued Tuesday
 by the Kaiser Family Foundation
 and Hewitt Associates,
 showed a continued erosion 
of retiree health benefits 
among large employers. 

  
 
Companies are requiring retirees 
to pay a larger share 
of premiums and other health costs.

 While continuing to provide coverage 
for people who have already retired,
 about 8 percent 
of large private employers 
took action in the last year 
to end all subsidized health benefits
 for future retirees, 
and another 11 percent said 
they would do so next year. 

"Prospects for retiree health coverage 
are slowly disappearing for America's workers,
 and retirees who have it 
will be paying more," said Drew E. Altman,
 the president of the Kaiser Family Foundation,


New hires, in particular,
 are less likely
 to receive any promise
 of retiree health benefits. 

 

 employers increased co-payments 
for prescription medicines,

 required retirees
 to get prior approval 
for certain drugs 

or
 insisted that retirees
 use mail-order pharmacies.

 

A typical worker under age 65 
who retired this year 
paid $2,244 annually
 in health premiums 
- 27 percent more
 than a similar worker
 who retired in 2003, 
 most workers retire 
before reaching 65. 

"Employers tell us 
 expect more
 of the same next year."

An employer's power 
to cut retiree health benefits
 depends on the terms
 of the documents 
that establish a health plan. 

Courts have generally said 
that if an employer
 explicitly reserves 
the right 
to reduce 
or eliminate 
health benefits,
 it can do so.

Among employers in the survey, 
79 percent said 
they increased premiums 
for retiree health benefits 
this year
 and 45 percent 
increased co-payments 
for a range
 of health care services. 




The long-term trend is clear.
 
Among employers
 with 200 or more workers, 
only  36 percent offered
 retiree 
health benefits
 
down from 66 percent in 1988.



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