Duke Energy becomes latest employer to stop insuring retirees

[WorseBeforeBetter]

By John Murawski — [e-mail]

Duke Energy, the nation’s largest electric utility, became the latest corporation to opt for ending a longstanding company practice of insuring its retirees, a cost-saving approach already embraced by IBM, Time Warner, Caterpillar, General Electric, DuPont and many others. Some 14,500 retirees of Duke Energy, Progress Energy and others, including 6,600 retirees in North Carolina, began receiving notices last week alerting them that the utility company will no longer provide retiree insurance to supplement Medicare coverage. Instead, the Charlotte-based power company will pay retirees an annual stipend and the former employees will be responsible for picking their own insurance.

To qualify for the company’s stipend, however, the retirees will have to buy coverage from one insurer: UnitedHealthcare.

The move affects not only retirees but also their spouses and dependents aged 65 and over who receive retirement benefits from the company or any of its predecessors or subsidiaries in six states. That includes Progress Energy, Carolina Power & Light, Cinergy, Florida Progress and others.

....

The retirees will not have the option of buying subsidized coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s new health care law, because they already get insurance through Medicare.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/09/17/3204246/duke-energy-becomes-latest-employer.html#storylink=cpy

[Triana]

1. I suspect the money that used to pay for the supplemental insurance went into CxO's bank accounts