I was notified a few weeks ago that the megacorp I retired from was going to do the same thing.
Originally, panic set in - until I attended one of the sessions held to explain the why along with the benefits of the "improved" program.
My former company (like many others) contributed a set amount for health care (both pre/post Medicare), and took care of arranging the plans. Before age 65/Medicare, services were through Blue Cross. After Medicare coverage started, your Primary was Medicare with Cigna as the medigap provider.
Since the company froze their health care contribution (both pre/post) a decade ago, we were paying more and more every year.
I can't complain about the coverage. Both the Blue Cross and Medicare/Cigna plans provided decent coverage, but at an ever increasing price.
What has happened on the retirement/Medicare side is a lot of folks were dropping Cigna medigap coverage and an increasing number were taking a lower cost plan (e.g. Advantage) which was closer to the cost that the company subsidy provided.
Those that did so did not continue with the company plan and they were removed from the "benefit", which also included losing the subsidy.
In a way, this will work out better for me/DW (both on Medicare), since we'll be able to shop around with our company's contribution (added to our own) to select a plan, be it an original Medicare gap plan or a supplemental plan from a private company.
And like IBM, I/DW be going through Extend Health (Towers Watson a/o Jan 1) for selection of our indivudial plan. Unlike our current plan, we can choose what is best for us based upon our indivudial health care plan needs.
We've already updated our indivudial accounts (doctors, meds) on the Extend Health site and have contacted them to go over the info. We will each have our "phone meeting" in late October to select/confirm our selections. Since plans will not be loaded/available until October 1, we've gone as far as we can at this stage.
Heck, it could be worse. My former company could eliminate retirement healthcare contributions entirely (and who knows what the future will bring?
)...
BTW, the article (and what we're going through currently) has nothing to do with the ACA exchanges. This is strictly related to Medicare age folks who get a retirement medical contribution from their former employers. See:
http://www.medicare.gov/about-us/affordable-care-act/medicare-and-the-marketplace.html for details.