Jim Casey

We gave up our pay.  Most everybody would agree that we gave up a bunch of pay to get this benefit.  And that benefit…you know, was written.  Every year you got a piece of paper – and this is not just one corporation but all corporations made sure that you knew that these healthcare benefits in retirement and other aspects of your retirement benefits were definitely yours, and you would be able to have them for as long as you lived. 

It’s a disaster.  Everybody who’s retired on a fixed income cannot afford even the supplemental healthcare plan.  I think that the cheapest one you can get in today’s world is about $350 for most people.  And that approximates what you had with your corporate benefit minus the Part D benefits, which a lot of corporations as soon as Part D came into effect in Medicare, they gave it up and left it to Medicare to handle.  Unfortunately, Part D has a donut hole in the middle, where instead of getting it free as you used to have when the corporation had it, you get a certain amount free, and then as soon as you use that up, then you have to spend your own money.  So there’s a small amount of time, if you’re on regular medications that you have to be able to deal with paying for that.