Posted on 10/05/2010 8:46:17 AM PDT by Qbert
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 noted that these changes affect current and future retirees of 3M, regardless of their retirement date.
The new policy is likely to save 3M money because it reduces the risk to the manufacturer for rising medical costs, according to a University of Minnesota professor interviewed Monday by Minnesota Public Radio.
“Why would she do that? It is exactly what Obama and his ilk want! Destroy private health care insurance so that the Government will be ‘forced’ to implement the SINGLE PAYER plan, like it always intended.”
That, indeed, is the long-term intention but it wasn’t supposed to happen until after The One was safely re-elected in 2012.
“Al Franken: Health reform has made a difference for Minnesotans”
I assume that was part of Mr. Franken’s comedy bit. (/s)
But seriously, I hope that Tom Emmer hammers away at idiot Lib statements like Franken’s in the remaining weeks...
Got Vasoline?
I think this is the Zimbabwe model of health care.
We will save money because there wont be any doctors soon.
If major corporations continue to make the news this way, Obama will help engineer a major Republican victory in November thanks to the HEALTH CARE DISASTER he invented...
“If you like your health care, you can keep it.”
And so it goes.
Most of those retirees probably voted rat because they think rats are the “givers”.
Health plans for retirees are something employers have found they can't adequately budget for. They have bankrupted more than one company that had been on solid footing for decades.
People asked the government to reduce the uncertainty and the rate at which health costs were growing. As is often the case when the government steps in, they did the exact opposite of what people really wanted.
You can't expect companies to provide the same benefits when the government we elected changes the rules on them.
McDonald's was the first big company with high turnover that offered somewhat limited health plans, but they won't be the last to point out that they can't possibly spend 80% or 85% of premiums on benefits without running huge deficits because of the overhead of managing policies for lots of what are often short term employees.
You can be sure that the major retailers and fast food chains face the same problems.
I'm sure Walmart is sitting back and waiting to see how the administration deals with McDonald's. They have to know that if they give McDonald's a waiver all the others with the same issue will ask for the same deal, and a considerable percentage of the minority that did support this horrible health care bill will feel betrayed.
...because Hussein TOLD you that if you LIKED your healthcare plan, you COULD KEEP IT!
</ sarc>
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.See, it's gotta be the fault of Big Corporations that the nation's health is at risk. /sarc
...bad news for lots of Minnesota liberals.
Hey, wait a minute! nobama said everything would be FREE! nobama is so intelligent and all-knowing. Just how can this be true? Just what kind of redistribution of wealth is this anyhow? nobama and his minions wouldn’t lie to me would they?????
...yes, it’s a good thing they have the rigorous intellect of Al Franken looking after them! Enjoy that medicare plan, 3M retirees.
And he said it just the other day...to, to, to that woman...in the backyard, the warm and fuzzy backyard, so it REALLY has to be true.
FUBO
Right Socialism is free but there isn’t any.
the Feds will TAX evil Companies like 3M who made a profit off cutting benefits for employees...
Means nothing - they simply pass the price along to consumers.
Companies do not pay tax, they just collect it from you and pass it to the government.
“Taxes don’t hurt the rich - they prevent you from becoming rich”
Watch for a new law or requirment that if a person wants to be a doctor he/she will have to accept medicare...
Given the rather large shortage of doctors in this country now, and the need to import huge numbers of semi qualified foreign practitioners, that is a threat without substance.
The medical profession is no longer attractive to Americans willing to invest 10-12 years & $750,000 in their schooling.
It’s just you. :) This will cost a fraction of what a traditional group would cost to keep in place.
I agree with you.
I don’t know the situation at MMM but if individuals were paying part of their medical insurance, not having it fully paid fully by the company, they may have a legal leg to stand on in a suit citing it was something they paid toward while working. Thinking that, the MMM attorneys probably came up with the idea of a stipend toward future medical coverage for retirees.
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