Loyalty Is A 4-Letter Word
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Hmm... / Opinion

By Marjo R. Moore, Editor






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    Now, more news of bosses screwing former employees. Shh... loyalty is a 4-letter word in corporate America.

    The Employee Benefit Research Institute calls it “the ticking retirement time bomb.” Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) President Drew Altman says employee-sponsored retiree coverage is going, going, gone thanks to sky rocketing costs. Nationally, retiree premiums this year cost 24-27 percent more than last year.

    Lobbyist Jim Norby has remarked names like Boeing and IBM are telling retirees ‘don’t be too proud to beg.’ Just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Power & Light (PP&L) is a top-traded stock, yet they’re slashing benefits.

    Of 300+ corporations surveyed, 18 percent- including a fifth of the Fortune 500- say they’re planning for retirees to maintain company coverage, but shoulder 100 percent of cost, said a new KFF study. Another 11 percent plan to terminate ALL access to ANY health coverage for future retirees.

    If that isn’t bad enough, corporations re-working retiree health plans on the eve of Bush’s Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) actually need to be told to educate former employees about these adjustments.

    Bush’s MMA, which will include a prescription drug benefit starting in 2006, had caused many analysts to speculate employers would dump burdensome retiree healthcare costs in the government’s lap. Much of alternative media also wrote MMA was a pat on the back for corporate RNC contributors.

    And conservatives said Kerry wanted to socialize health-care?

    The KFF report concluded double-digit increases in retiree premiums continue to hasten the trend to employee cost burden. Duh.

    “Given the complexity of the new law, educational efforts could help ease the transition for retirees as MMA is implemented,” the report said.

    Nearly 30 percent of employers said they would NOT educate their people about coverage changes. A frequent contributor to online and print publications, Moore is best known for her massive collection of Tom Snyder quotes. "You know the two things I like best about Larry King? His face!" Visit her blog, updated semi-weekly, where she rips on Visa, why the world is the way it is, and other earth shattering topics.




    AUTHOR: Marjo R. Moore

    TAGS: Opinion            

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    roro




    roro says on 2006-07-24 22:22:55 about "loyalty is a 4-letter word
    Ha!... I am one of those retirees that got dumped out of Sprint's retiree prescription drug plan. Since I cannot afford the 8 fold increase during the Medicare D donut hole gap I have voluntarily stopped 2/3 of my medications necessary for me to breathe. My meds would cost me $400-$500 a month and I cannot afford them. Every day is a struggle as I can feel my lungs slowly shutting down. With less and less air capacity I find myself taking forever to accomplish tasks. Recently I have felt Death approaching but have managed to stay calm and concentrate on breathing. I never smoked during my lifetime yet I have a smoker's disease from second hand smoke while working at Sprint in the 70's and 80's when smoking was permitted in the offices. My health has deteriorated considerably since last November 2005 when I found out I was dumped and I am depressed knowing that my life has now been shortened by these greedy corporate entities. I think that my anger keeps me going but in the end I will have the last say. No matter what, I will not surrender all that I have worked for to pay for drugs to keep me alive. The drug co's will not ever benefit from me because I plan to leave what I worked for to my children not to the drug co's. All that I worked for has been destroyed by the Bush administration and as an American I am outraged at being treated like a third world citizen. At this point 4-letter words are useless and I do believe that what goes around comes around. Shame on Mr. Bush and his greedy pals.









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