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3M Co. will drop retirees from health plans, steer to Medicare

Prof. Peabody

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Monday, October 4, 2010, 12:28pm CDT | Modified: Monday, October 4, 2010, 12:56pm
3M Co. will drop retirees from health plans, steer to Medicare

Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Sam Black Staff Writer

3M Co., citing new federal health laws, said Monday it won't cover retirees with its corporate health-insurance plan starting in 2013.

Instead, the company will direct retirees to Medicare-backed insurance programs, and will provide reimbursement for that coverage. It'll also reimburse retirees who are too young for Medicare; the company didn't provide further details.

The company made the changes known in a memo to employees Friday; news of the move was reported in The Wall Street Journal and confirmed Monday by 3M spokeswoman Jackie Berry.

In its memo, the company said the new health-reform act would create new opportunities for people in their 50s and 60s to find affordable insurance.

Maplewood-based 3M (NYSE: MMM) is one of the first large companies to indicate that it won't tap a large federal-government reimbursement program created by Congress as part of the health insurance reform package, The Wall Street Journal reported. The rebate program was meant to encourage employers to keep in place their health-insurance plans for retirees.

3M said the new policy will begin in 2013 for retirees who are 65 and older and qualify for Medicare. Non-Medicare eligible retirees and their dependents will join the program in 2015.

3M Co. will drop retirees from health plans, steer to Medicare - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

More victims of Obama Care. I can only hope it motivates them to kick the Democrats to the curb in another month.
 
More victims of Obama Care. I can only hope it motivates them to kick the Democrats to the curb in another month.

With annual enrollment coming up, we just received notice of our premium increases. We were informed in a letter that due to the reforms, health premiums were increasing. Luckily, I work for a company that is going to pick up most of the increased premiums. This will apparently cost the company multiple milions of dollars (I am not providing specifics here). The amount of the increase left for me to pay isn't too much.

I feel sorry for those people that work for companies that aren't doing this. The increase for us would have been quite large if not for the company's decision - they provided calculations for how much they were picking up.
 
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More victims of Obama Care. I can only hope it motivates them to kick the Democrats to the curb in another month.

This can't be true. Don't you remember hearing many many times, "if you like your health care, you can keep it"?
 
With annual enrollment coming up, we just received notice of our premium increases. We were informed in a letter that due to the reforms, health premiums were increasing. Luckily, I work for a company that is going to pick up most of the increased premiums. This will apparently cost the company multiple milions of dollars (I am not providing specifics here). The amount of the increase left for me to pay isn't too much.

I feel sorry for those people that work for companies that aren't doing this. The increase for us would have been quite large if not for the company's decision - they provided calculations for how much they were picking up.

really? then why have most premiums increased every year prior to this one? just because? why in the world do you trust that insurance companies are truthful?
 
really? then why have most premiums increased every year prior to this one? just because? why in the world do you trust that insurance companies are truthful?

My company did a mid year increase, something that the Plant manager said, he has never seen in 20 years.
I think, it's mostly to prepare for future liabilities, when the system increases the mandated care.
 
My company did a mid year increase, something that the Plant manager said, he has never seen in 20 years.
I think, it's mostly to prepare for future liabilities, when the system increases the mandated care.

that may be.....or they did it because they could. how can we know?
 
You either have to take their word for it or find another cause.

Technically, premiums should be going down because we are hitting the baby boomer retirement era but they aren't.

because people aren't retiring. and insurance company premiums won't go down, no matter what. remember the hoopla about malpractice insurance and how the price should go down with tort reform? guess what........states who enacted tort reform say no decreases in malpractice premiums. wonder why?
 
really? then why have most premiums increased every year prior to this one? just because? why in the world do you trust that insurance companies are truthful?

Yes, really. This year's increase was much higher than in years past. Additionally, our company offers a few different plans/options including a self insured insurance plan. An insurance company is not involved in the self-insrued plan, and those premiums have also gone up quite a bit too. The reason for a large amount of the increase, even in teh self-insured plan, was the reforms - as specifically stated in the announcement we recieved.
 
because people aren't retiring. and insurance company premiums won't go down, no matter what. remember the hoopla about malpractice insurance and how the price should go down with tort reform? guess what........states who enacted tort reform say no decreases in malpractice premiums. wonder why?

Not all of them are but enough to at least have an effect of dropping the price by a couple of tenths of a percent.

I don't agree with tort reform personally.
I'd prefer judges act more discriminating, when dealing with possible frivolous law suits.
 
More victims of Obama Care. I can only hope it motivates them to kick the Democrats to the curb in another month.

Companies have been doing this for a long, long time.

Long before anyone even heard of Obama.

For example, here are a couple of FAQ from Honeywell


5.When I or my dependent become Medicare eligible or turn age 65, what changes?

You must enroll in Medicare Parts A and B, as this will become your primary coverage. Further information will be mailed to you approximately three months before your 65th birthday.


8.If I or my dependent do not sign up for Medicare Part B, does the insurance company cover those types of expenses?

Honeywell has designed its retiree medical benefits to work together with Medicare to provide you the coverage you need.

General FAQs - Honeywell Retiree
 
People should not be getting their insurance through their companies anyway. They're just hurting themselves by doing so.

How? I have great insurance through my company and would hate to give it up.
 
How? I have great insurance through my company and would hate to give it up.

Because it tethers you to your job. You'll be more willing to accept ****ty work conditions, ****ty bosses, ****ty treatment in order to keep said insurance. Whereas if you had insurance separate from the job, then it doesn't tether you to it.

And then, if you lose your job, you get a double whammy by losing your insurance too. The two should not be tied together like that.
 
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Not all of them are but enough to at least have an effect of dropping the price by a couple of tenths of a percent.

I don't agree with tort reform personally.
I'd prefer judges act more discriminating, when dealing with possible frivolous law suits.

enough of them should have been retiring 2 years ago as well.....did you see a drop in premiums?
 
This can't be true. Don't you remember hearing many many times, "if you like your health care, you can keep it"?

I kept hearing that, but I guess they left off the price increase part. I do remember Obama saying it would reduce cost for all of us. That worked out about as good as Obama saying the stimulus would create 90% of the jobs in the private sector.
 
Because it tethers you to your job. You'll be more willing to accept ****ty work conditions, ****ty bosses, ****ty treatment in order to keep said insurance. Whereas if you had insurance separate from the job, then it doesn't tether you to it.

And then, if you lose your job, you get a double whammy by losing your insurance too. The two should not be tied together like that.

I guess if you look at your job as a passing and temporary assignment. I tend to think of my jobs as career positions and only like to change them when an opportunity presents itself as a worthwhile step up (or a relocation). Having my insurance paid by the company is only a bonus to me and it doesn't tether me to anything I wouldn't otherwise wish for anyway.

I've also never left a job and not had another with similar or better benefits ready for me when I went.
 
Because it tethers you to your job. You'll be more willing to accept ****ty work conditions, ****ty bosses, ****ty treatment in order to keep said insurance. Whereas if you had insurance separate from the job, then it doesn't tether you to it.

And then, if you lose your job, you get a double whammy by losing your insurance too. The two should not be tied together like that.

I've been working many years, had at least 5 jobs in my chosen profession and having insurance with the various companies has posed no problems. However, I think the dynamic is changing as government gets more involved in healthcare. Companies are definitely going to play their employees off on the government plans when it suits them and insurance companies are going to deny more services. We should have left things alone.
 
really? then why have most premiums increased every year prior to this one? just because? why in the world do you trust that insurance companies are truthful?

Obama swore that insurance permiums would go down, because of Obamacare. But, they're going up. Just because?
 
economically and socially, yes, everyone who has any sense of physics saw this coming

and 3m is not alone

there's a whole lot more wrong with obamacare than just this BLATANT failure to keep its fundamental promise---you can keep what you like

the doc shortage arising inevitably from a massive expansion of coverage is very real

Texas doctors fleeing Medicare in droves | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

the savings obama also promised and also failed to deliver on, he explained with the persistence of an ahab chasing a great white whale, would come in reduced traffic thru those inefficiently expensive er's

it turns out that resort to er's actually increases when medicaid and medicare are so massively expanded, underfunded and overstrained precisely because of this maddening inability to find a doc who will simply make an appt

Emergency room visits grow in Mass. - The Boston Globe

states, meanwhile, so many of em approaching the greek model of complete fiduciary collapse, are somehow to absorb in the midst of their bankruptcies some 12 million more medicaid members, the ghetto of health care, with no federal funding

Governors balk over what healthcare bill will cost states - The Boston Globe

yes, economically and socially this obamacare is a catastrophe

politcally, however, heading into this cruel campaign crunch, the outlook could be even critical

POLL: Dislike of healthcare law crosses party lines, 1 in 4 Dems want repeal - TheHill.com

in the most battleground districts in the nation---AZ1 ann kirkpatrick, IL18 debbie halvorson, NM3 harry teague (49% of DEMS favor REPEAL in teague's troubled, temporary territory), MD3 frank kratovil, OH15 mary joe kilroy, VA5 tom perriello, CO4 betsy markey, MI7 mark schauer, PN3 kathy dahlkemper, VA2 glenn nye, NV3 dina titus---UNDECIDEDS in these crucial districts favor REPEAL by 49% to 27

will you stop arguing with each other long enough to look?

or do you prefer simply to party on?
 
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Obama swore that insurance permiums would go down, because of Obamacare. But, they're going up. Just because?

Because apparently this health care bill isn't actually a takeover of the insurance industry, and insurance companies are still free to gouge you at will.
 
it is what it is

the way the bill was written, deemed and crammed, you are MANDATED to go BUY that product from those OBSCENE megacorps

like i said, it is what it is

party on
 
Because apparently this health care bill isn't actually a takeover of the insurance industry, and insurance companies are still free to gouge you at will.

Or, perhaps the mandates of Obamacare created a situation where insurance companies are forced to raise premiums, or go out of business.

Are you ok with the IRS administrating the healthcare system in this country? I'm not.
 
People should not be getting their insurance through their companies anyway. They're just hurting themselves by doing so.

Get used oi it. Obama care will end up costing billions before the damn Liberals figure out they have been duped again.

How many times are they willing to give Obama a pass only because he's half black.

OMG did he say half black? You damn betcha.

If he was as stupid as he is as a white guy he would still be the crooked Chicago political hack in stead of the Amateur in Chief he has become.
 
Get used oi it. Obama care will end up costing billions before the damn Liberals figure out they have been duped again.

How many times are they willing to give Obama a pass only because he's half black.

OMG did he say half black? You damn betcha.

If he was as stupid as he is as a white guy he would still be the crooked Chicago political hack in stead of the Amateur in Chief he has become.

Every time!

"It's better to lose the war than to admit to the mistake"
 
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