Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to start reducing health insurance coverage next year for more than 30,000 retired city workers and begin shifting them to President Barack Obama's new federal system.
The move is aimed at saving the city money and comes as the Emanuel administration has been trying to wrangle significant pension cost concessions from employee unions.
The details are in a letter the city plans to send to retirees this week.
Still getting health insurance: Police officers and firefighters who retired between the ages of 55 and 64 and are not yet eligible for Medicare but whose coverage is guaranteed under union contracts, as well as workers who retired before August 1989 and are protected by a legal settlement.
Cut out as of Jan. 1 will be the rest. That's when the city will begin a three-year phaseout of the coverage, according to the letter signed by Comptroller Amer Ahmad. During that period, premiums, deductibles and benefits could change, the letter states.
Once the phaseout is complete, those retired workers would have to pay for their own health insurance or get subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. The city-subsidized coverage is particularly important to retired workers who aren't yet eligible for Medicare, as opposed to those 65 or older who use the subsidies for Medicare supplemental insurance.
"The retirement healthcare system as it stands today is fiscally unsustainable, and we have a responsibility to ensure a secure financial path for Chicago taxpayers," Emanuel spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said in a statement after being asked about Ahmad's letter. "But the mayor also wants to ensure that our retirees who served this city honorably have access to healthcare and the critical information they need to make informed decisions."
Emanuel's decision comes as the city continues to wrangle with unions over how best to alter the city's four pension systems to avoid major financial havoc as pension-funding bills come due in the next few years. Taking away health care could give Emanuel leverage in those talks.
The four pension systems have about $20 billion in unfunded liabilities. That tab does not include an $805 million shortage in retiree health care funds, which ends up putting the pension funds that also pay a portion of the insurance costs in an even more precarious financial position.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...red-city-workers-health-care-health-insurance
ROFL
I bet that's not going to make the retiree's happy. The unions put Obama in office, and now they are getting fucked just like everyone else.
The move is aimed at saving the city money and comes as the Emanuel administration has been trying to wrangle significant pension cost concessions from employee unions.
The details are in a letter the city plans to send to retirees this week.
Still getting health insurance: Police officers and firefighters who retired between the ages of 55 and 64 and are not yet eligible for Medicare but whose coverage is guaranteed under union contracts, as well as workers who retired before August 1989 and are protected by a legal settlement.
Cut out as of Jan. 1 will be the rest. That's when the city will begin a three-year phaseout of the coverage, according to the letter signed by Comptroller Amer Ahmad. During that period, premiums, deductibles and benefits could change, the letter states.
Once the phaseout is complete, those retired workers would have to pay for their own health insurance or get subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. The city-subsidized coverage is particularly important to retired workers who aren't yet eligible for Medicare, as opposed to those 65 or older who use the subsidies for Medicare supplemental insurance.
"The retirement healthcare system as it stands today is fiscally unsustainable, and we have a responsibility to ensure a secure financial path for Chicago taxpayers," Emanuel spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said in a statement after being asked about Ahmad's letter. "But the mayor also wants to ensure that our retirees who served this city honorably have access to healthcare and the critical information they need to make informed decisions."
Emanuel's decision comes as the city continues to wrangle with unions over how best to alter the city's four pension systems to avoid major financial havoc as pension-funding bills come due in the next few years. Taking away health care could give Emanuel leverage in those talks.
The four pension systems have about $20 billion in unfunded liabilities. That tab does not include an $805 million shortage in retiree health care funds, which ends up putting the pension funds that also pay a portion of the insurance costs in an even more precarious financial position.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...red-city-workers-health-care-health-insurance
ROFL
I bet that's not going to make the retiree's happy. The unions put Obama in office, and now they are getting fucked just like everyone else.