General Motors Retirees Lose Company Health Care Coverage, Will Receive $300 Monthly To Purchase Coverage

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Seniors / Aging
Article Date: 13 Oct 2008 - 2:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

General Motors on Jan. 1, 2009, will cease to provide health care coverage for more than 100,000 retirees and their dependents and instead will add $300 to their monthly pension checks to purchase insurance, the Detroit Free Press reports. The move is an effort to reduce spending by GM, which spent $3.3 billion on retiree health coverage in 2007.

Medicare enrollment begins Wednesday for GM retirees, one month before the enrollment period for the general population. GM has contracted Extend Health to help mail Medicare kits to GM retirees from now until November. Extend Health will provide price comparisons of the Medicare plans with which it has contracts. Retirees who seek other, potentially less costly plans must research and contact those companies themselves.

Chuck Austin, president of the National Chrysler Retirement Organization, said Ford and GM retirees recently met with his group to compare health insurance companies and discuss other issues (Anstett, Detroit Free Press, 10/10).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2008 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation.  All rights reserved.