Posted on 10/21/2009 2:15:15 PM PDT by mdittmar
DETROIT—General Motors Corp. will replace its traditional health care plan for salaried retirees younger than 65 with a consumer-driven health plan linked to health savings accounts effective Jan. 1, 2010.
Under the new arrangement, posted on a GM retiree Web site, the annual deductible will be $2,500 for individual coverage and $5,000 for family coverage. The maximum annual out-of-pocket expense will be $3,500 for individuals and $7,000 for families.
A GM spokesman was not available for comment.
After deductibles are met, GM will pay 80% of the cost of medical services and prescription drugs delivered through in-network providers and 60% of out-of-network costs. However, certain preventive services that include annual physicals, mammograms and prostate and colon cancer screenings will not be subject to the deductible.
In addition, certain preventive generic prescriptions, such as cholesterol-lowering medications, will be subject to smaller copayments—$10 for a prescription from a retail pharmacy and $20 if filled through mail-order pharmacies.
In 2010, salaried retirees with individual coverage will be allowed to contribute up to $3,050 to health savings accounts, while retirees with family coverage will be allowed to contribute $6,150 to an HSA. In addition, retirees age 55 and older will be allowed to contribute an additional $1,000 a year to their HSA in so-called catch-up contributions.
Retirees will be allowed to establish an HSA at a financial institution of their choosing. However, GM will pay administrative fees of HSAs that are set up with Bank of America Corp.
Monthly premiums for the retiree consumer-driven health plan will range from $150 for individuals to $253 for families.
GM will allocate $260 a month to retirees’ health reimbursement arrangements but will halt those allocations when salaried retirees turn 65. GM, which earlier this year filed for and then emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, eliminated health care coverage for Medicare-eligible salaried retirees at the start of this year.
In addition, as part of a 2007 contract with the United Auto Workers, GM will stop providing retiree health care coverage to UAW members effective Jan. 1, 2010. Instead, it will contribute billions of dollars in cash and other assets to a special trust controlled by the UAW.
In other news, the Obama Adiministration, which took over several banks and a czar company or two, has decided by force of government to slash slash executive pay by more 90%.
No top executive will earn more than $200,000 in total compensation. All perks such as limo, private jet, country club membership will have to be applied for and through the government.
After hours stocks turned in late day trading for the financial services sector on fears of further regulations.
Those are some pretty steep deductibles for retirees, if I am reading it right.
Yep,but they were greedy management/sarc
This sounds almost like catastrophic coverage, given the relatively high deductibles.
If all insurance were run this way, we wouldn't need "reform," which is exactly why it isn't.
p.s.,they can always switch to government health care.
This is actually a rational way to provide health insurance coverage that will really insure you against catastrophic illness or accident, while encouraging individuals to be cost-conscious with their daily health care choices.
If I wanted to give government the power to “fix” health care, this is the type of policy I would have government mandate. It’s a way to get control of costs, by making us all consumers again. Right now, too many of us are abusers of the system, because someone else pays for our health care, while we pay fixed insurance costs — meaning we want to use MORE care to “get our money’s worth”, much like an all-you-can-eat buffet.
but alas.....we have the ruling party and the peasants........
I feel this is communist Russia, where the "party" members (unionists and crackpots and leftists) get to vacation on the Caspian Sea and the "workers" get to dig for their potatoes.......
I like my coverage thank you,and I’m non union,I have a stake in it,$21.92 a week pre-tax. This is all about forcing people into government run health care.
Haven’t used mine in 11 years,it’s there if I need it,I pay for it weekly,I don’t need no stickin obamacare.
My folks have a retirement policy from Whirlpool and their coverage is almost the same (they started out with a great policy, but it’s been “watered down” over the years.) Now it’s a $2000 deductible, %3500 our of pocket max per year, 80 percent after the deductible.
Where do you think the term “Cadillac Healthcare Plan” originated?
A cynic might think that this action was designed to drive these retirees into supporting Obama’s “free” government health care.
Call me a cynic.
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