Health Care and Employment Solution?

[ziggy29]

I thought many employers have been cancelling this kind of arrangement, even after you've retired. It's only a promise, not a guaranteed benefit. Not sure I would count on it, but it would have been nice. DW needed 1/2 year more service to qualify (without a subsidy) for her employer's health plan after retirement when her employer decided to stop doing that.

Yeah, my previous employer canned retiree health insurance for everyone under 50, and then froze the pension a few months later. It's no accident that this was when I started looking for a new job; my main reasons for sticking with my (then) current employer vanished.

 

[Alan]

I thought many employers have been cancelling this kind of arrangement, even after you've retired. It's only a promise, not a guaranteed benefit. Not sure I would count on it, but it would have been nice. DW needed 1/2 year more service to qualify (without a subsidy) for her employer's health plan after retirement when her employer decided to stop doing that.

I'm hoping ObamaCare survives and DW will keep working until 2014...

Many employers have been cancelling retiree HI, and mine may also follow suit but so far so good. Before RE'ing I had $15k/year in the projected budget for health care. Until the company changes its policy we'll continue to live high on the hog.

 

[Blackwoodt]

Many employers have been cancelling retiree HI, and mine may also follow suit but so far so good. Before RE'ing I had $15k/year in the projected budget for health care. Until the company changes its policy we'll continue to live high on the hog.

So far so good with my company. Working in the Corporate office I know that my company has no intention of eliminating the retiree health care anytime soon. If in the future they did decide to eliminate the health care, anyone already working would be grandfathered in.

 

[Alan]

So far so good with my company. Working in the Corporate office I know that my company has no intention of eliminating the retiree health care anytime soon. If in the future they did decide to eliminate the health care, anyone already working would be grandfathered in.

That's good to hear. I hope my company is of the same mind.

 

[palomalou]

I say we simply encourage our youth to exercise their right to ride motorcycles without helmets, and then harvest their [-]rich, delicious[/-] healthy organs for our benefit.

OTOH, wouldn't that be fewer people paying into SS for US?

 

[M Paquette]

OTOH, wouldn't that be fewer people paying into SS for US?

Ah, yes. Naturally, we would have to increase the birth rate to compensate. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.

 

[chinaco]

So far so good with my company. Working in the Corporate office I know that my company has no intention of eliminating the retiree health care anytime soon. If in the future they did decide to eliminate the health care, anyone already working would be grandfathered in.

I would not assume anything.


IMO, plan and be prepared for the worst case. Then hope you don't wind up in that situation.

 

[Midpack]

The company I worked for eliminated retiree health care in 1995. There was no longer any option for employees not yet retired, not sure how they handled (the thousands of) existing retirees. If there can be such a thing, it ended the suspense for me, I knew long before I retired that I'd be on my own.

I think we will end up with some sort of nationalized/universal health care though it may be years or even decades. I hope it's not Obamacare which appears to be even more expensive than our current dysfunctional systems. If every other developed nation can do it, at a lower cost per capita than the US already costs, why can't we? [Answer: politics - special interests (Corp & health care establishment) - individuals who can't see what it really costs us protecting the status quo]

 

[Katsmeow]

I thought many employers have been cancelling this kind of arrangement, even after you've retired. It's only a promise, not a guaranteed benefit. Not sure I would count on it, but it would have been nice. DW needed 1/2 year more service to qualify (without a subsidy) for her employer's health plan after retirement when her employer decided to stop doing that.

The existence of subsidized retiree health coverage was a key factor in DH retiring and me ESR'ing (with plan to fully retire in a couple of years). He was 62 and I was 56. Without the retiree coverage -- and the fact it also covered me -- we couldn't have done it. It is, of course, possible his employer could end the coverage and then it would be problem (not so much for DH as he is now almost medicare age). But, should I have continue working full time for 9 more years just on the chance that the retiree coverage would be eliminated? (FWIW, his employer has I think either eliminated or significantly changed it for newer employees but DH was grandfathered in to the old plan

 

[chinaco]

...
I think we will end up with some sort of nationalized/universal health care though it may be years or even decades. ...

This is probably the only way to deal with the issue. Cost shifting and medical costs require a very large pool.

Since we will probably never refuse care (morally or legally)... It will probably have to be mandatory.... because people can get care by just showing up at the emergency room and not pay (cost shifting to people who are insured).

The spiraling cost issues can be dealt with. But most of us will probably not like the answer. The answer will probably be: Non-life threatening care that is expensive is rationed (get in a queue and wait... eventually get it) or pay more to get it now (i.e., supplemental policy).

 

[Huston55]

Ah, yes. Naturally, we would have to increase the birth rate to compensate. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.

I say we simply encourage our youth to exercise their right to ride motorcycles without helmets, and then harvest their [-]rich, delicious[/-] healthy organs for our benefit.

Hmmmmm, Stepford wives and replaceable body parts. Now here's a man who's thought this through!