Question:
The company that my late husband retired from was recently purchased by a
huge company that is that is in turn owned by a even bigger company, Sun
Capital Partners which is part of the Sun Group.. Without any notice of any
kind, they dropped our health insurance. All retirement issues were covered
by contract through a large nationally known union, United Steel Workers of
America.. However, the new company refuses to recognize the union and a
major labor dispute is taking place.
Has anybody had any experience with loosing his or her company-paid health
insurance after retirement? I called the insurance company and they said
our coverage was dropped as of July 1st. Nobody is talking and the big
union isn't saying to us although their logo is on our insurance cards.
I guess I'm about to become a welfare case because I cannot pay for private
health insurance on my income. It seems as though one company after another
is just dumping people, leaving them with reduced or no pension at all and
no health insurance either. Is all of this legal? Why is the government
letting companies do this to people? Is anybody safe in today's society?
Has anyone had any experience with this type of situation? If so, what did
you do about it? What can be done about this type of situation? What kind
of action would you take if this happened to you?
Answer:
It happened to a family member. He was a few months from retirement and
his employer filed bankruptcy. His employement agreement included the
company paying his health insurance. He had worked for the company for
>20 years. He took 2 large financial hits because of this. He is
getting less than half of the pension he was supposed to get (the
government relaxed the rules that pensions must be fully funded and
protected at the request of big companies) and he has to pay for his
families health insurance out of pocket. Which he can barely afford and
has to forgo everything ele to do it.
Because it is a significant windfall for a big company to discard its
obligations. Get the envelopes to the right people and things happen.
Nothing to do with capitalism, everything to do with the
terminal stupidity of locking health care to employment.
You voters were stupid enough to not notice the problem ?
You get to wear the consequences of that stupid approach.
The company didn't go broke. It was sold to a bigger organization that
wants to combine it with similar operations already under their control. And
if a bunch of greedy people at the head of so many major corporations can
give themselves mega pay increases and perks galore, then the workers who
helped to produce the income deserve what was promised to them by contract.
AFYI, Medicare doesn't cover everything and people have co-payments too.
That is why most people have some type of additional policy. Guess maybe
it is time for a national healthcare plan in the USA.
Everything from the health insurance companys
thru plenty of stupid doctors, to some stupid voters.
More than likely it is individual taxpayers who are protesting because they
may find themselves paying more to provide care for everybody. I suppose
too that healthcare companies may not be too fond of the idea. After all,
they couldn't continue to sell people insurance and make a profit if
national healthcare existed. Doctors and other professionals in the
healthcare field may not like the idea because a national healthcare system
would establish what they could charge. For now, in the USA, healthcare is
still a free enterprise situation. There may also be some concerns about
known problems with other national healthcare systems such as long waits for
certain types of care. Many people in countries with national healthcare in
place travel to the USA for care because they feel the quality of care may
be better and care is quickly available.
