IBM moves 110k retirees off healthcare plan

[littlewolf]

International Business Machines Corp. plans to move about 110,000 retirees off its company-sponsored health plan and instead give them a payment to buy coverage on a health-insurance exchange, in a sign that even big, well-capitalized employers aren't likely to keep providing the once-common benefits as medical costs continue to rise.


The move, which will affect all IBM retirees once they become eligible for Medicare, will relieve the technology company of the responsibility of managing retirement health-care benefits. IBM said the growing cost of care makes its current plan unsustainable without big premium increases.


IBM's shift is an indication that health-insurance marketplaces, similar to the public exchanges proposed under President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul, will play a bigger role as companies move coverage down the path taken by many pensions, paying employees and retirees a fixed sum to manage their own care.


In notices signed by Chief Health Director Kyu Rhee, IBM has told retirees in recent weeks that to keep receiving coverage, they will need to pick a plan offered through Extend Health, a large private Medicare exchange run by New York-based Towers Watson & Co.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/07/ibm-to-move-retirees-off-health-plan/#ixzz2eDvPh2ST

[Ed Suspicious]

1. Privatize the gains, socialize the losses. Single payer. Now please.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Who could have foreseen this turn of events ??!!

[msongs]

3. romneycare has a track record in MA...now that is called the ACA they can be compared nt

[Yo_Mama]

4. Governments are going to be doing the same

Detroit is discussing it, and so are a lot of other cities.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-02/troubled-cities-see-exchanges-as-way-to-unload-retirees.html

Detroit (9845MF) is facing bankruptcy, and Chicago wants to cut retiree benefit costs. Both are turning to President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul in what could become a road map for cash-strapped cities.

The municipalities plan to end or limit health coverage for retirees under 65 who don’t yet qualify for Medicare, with the expectation they can get insurance in the exchanges opening Jan. 1 under President Barack Obama’s health-care law.
...
Still, municipalities might not have much choice. As of fiscal 2009, the 61 most populous U.S. cities had funded only 6 percent of $126.2 billion in retiree health-care liabilities, according a report in January by the Pew Charitable Trusts.