General Motors retiree: ?This is a knife stab in the back?
>
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> After years of getting generous coverage, retirees from salaried jobs at
> General Motors Corp. reacted angrily today to the announcement that GM was
> ending their health benefits.
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>
> ?I?m disappointed in the lifetime promise GM made to us,? said John
> Fleming, 67, of Rochester Hills, a retired information system auditor. ?We?ve
> been wiped off the books completely.?
>
> Fleming was among the shell-shocked GM retirees wondering about what they?d
> do next for health care, following the surprise announcement that is part
> of GM?s latest cost-cutting plan.
>
> Effective Jan. 1, GM will end health benefits for 97,400 salaried
> retirees, their spouses and dependents. Retirees will receive an extra
> $300 a month in their pension checks that could be used to buy health > care.
>
> Salaried Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Corp. retirees had to make similar
> choices in the past two years, after receiving years of coverage for
> medical, dental, vision, prescription drug and some rehabilitation
> services with modest co-pays.
>
> Although half of American employers still offer health benefits to
> retirees, the trend is to drop retirement health plans for newer workers
> or freeze coverage for current retirees to save money, according to the
> Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health research organization. >
> Now GM retirees must also navigate the confusing world of Medicare ? a
> health insurance plan some find so bewildering that many settle for
> costlier plans without doing the research to find cheaper, more > comprehensive ones.
>
> GM has hired ExtendHealth, a San Francisco benefits management company, to
> help retirees find new health coverage, said GM spokeswoman Michelle > Bunker.
>
> ExtendHealth last year helped 40,000 Ford salaried retirees make a similar
> transition. GM will send information packages to those affected in
> September and will set up a call-in telephone service prior to Oct. 15,
> the first day of enrollment for Medicare.
>
> The package will be followed by other mailings and seminars to guide
> retirees through their Medicare options. ?We want to make this transition
> as easy as possible for everyone,? Bunker said.
>
> GM paid $3.3 billion last year for health care for its 442,400 retirees, a
> figure that includes hourly workers not affected by the benefit changes
> announced Tuesday, Bunker said. Hourly retirees? health care moves off GM?s
> books to UAW oversight in 2010.
>
> With a new 2008 Chevrolet HHR in their driveway, Aldona and John Tessmar
> of Canton were furious with the news.
>
> ?We gave them the best years of our lives, and we?re devastated,? said
> Aldona Tessmar, 74, who was a GM accounting staffer for 27 years. >
> ?They want us to retire and then drop dead,? said her husband, John
> Tessmar, 72, a former security supervisor who worked 28 years for GM. >
> The Tessmars worry about what coverage they will be able to find, given
> their health problems. He just finished cancer treatment. They both have
> macular degeneration, a potentially blinding but common eye problem in
> elderly people. He also has an ulcer.
>
> ?The problem is, the people who are over 65 have medical problems,? John
> Tessmar said. ?A lot of insurance companies don?t want to take us on
> because we?re going to cost them some money.?
>
> He said he wants to kick himself for buying the GM car.
>
> ?All the current employees, retirees and their families are suffering for
> the wrong decisions made for many years by the top executives,? he said. >
> The couple still haven?t adjusted to higher co-pays they began to pay in
> 2005 and pension benefits frozen for 17 years, John Tessmar said. >
> ?The bottom line for these people is the dollar,? he said. ?I wonder if
> some of their grandparents are being affected just like us. This is a
> knife stab in the back.?
>
> --
> Civis Romanus Sum