Response to "Just a Guy". The retirees whose insurance was cancelled are in the age group 50-64. They are not medicare eligible. These people met all the requirements in the merit system rules and policies they followed their entire working life with Pima County and once retired, their promises as specified in those rules were removed. We were accused of using our medical benefits and causing the cost to rise for the active employees. When we requested a comparison of the active employee costs in our age group versus the costs for our retiree group, we were denied. Any time you take the costs of the active employees in our age group and lump it with the costs of active employees who are between 18 and 50, of course the use of medical coverage is going to be a lot less. To isolate the older employees or in our case the retirees and look strictly at their costs, the amount is going to be higher. Perhaps "Just a Guy" should look at the entire picture before he determines that the retirees are the sole reason the costs of the active employee health insurance is rising. Maybe it is because all people in our age group that use health insurance is causing it to rise. Would he suggest dropping the active employees in our age group to keep the active employees aged under 50 to keep the cost down? Where do you draw the line? Shouldn't the retirees have been grandfathered into the insurance policy since they were not given an opportunity to plan for an alternative?
Huckelberry has not been honest with the tax payers about many topics but trying to infer that they were expected to pay for the retirees insurance is just wrong. The retirees paid the full premium for their health benefits. They did not attempt to demand anything that had not been promised to them in the merit system rules and policies throughout the years. When he cancelled the retirees insurance coverage, the policy still stated we were entitled to be covered. He did not even have the authority to cancel it. It was the BOS that should have made that call. The policy was not changed until six months after our benefits were cancelled. He never gave us the opportunity to meet and discuss the possibility of continuing our benefits. We were expected to go to the state plan and as a result some of the retirees no longer are able to carry health insurance because of the high cost. The tax payers should be aware of what type of person is running the county and is in charge of their money paid through taxes. He is not exactly on the up and up.
I guess we are not aware of the new math either. We are both County retirees. The ASRS plan offers only one plan and that is $583/month for each retiree less the $150 stipend. That leaves an out of pocket expense of $433/month for each of us. This is a far cry from the $112 the County Administrator claims it costs us each month. I would like to know what plans he is comparing to come up with that amount. In my old school method of adding and subtracting, the monthly medical insurance expense for each of us is $321 higher than he said it should be. Does this seem strange to anyone else?
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