GM Reducing Health Care Benefits For Retired Salaried Workers Younger Than Age 65 Who Are Eligible For Medicare

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 13 Feb 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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General Motors on Tuesday announced that it will stop providing health care coverage for retired salaried employees who are younger than age 65 and qualify for Medicare, Dow Jones reports (Terlep, Dow Jones, 2/11). The company will provide retirees who lose their coverage with a $260 monthly medical expense credit to help pay for qualified expenses such as premiums, deductibles and copayments. According to a GM employee compensation document, GM will stop providing the benefit on Jan. 1, 2010. The company also plans to reduce life insurance benefits for most of its white-collar retirees.

The change will affect "a few thousand" retirees, according to GM spokesperson Tom Wilkinson (Higgins, Detroit Free Press, 2/11). According to Dow Jones, "the numbers are expected to be small as relatively few people younger than 65 are covered by Medicare" (Dow Jones, 2/11). Wilkinson added that other salaried retirees younger than age 65 who were hired before 1993 will continue to receive coverage through GM, and that employees hired after 1993 do not receive GM-provided health care after retirement. Last year, GM announced that the company would stop providing health care to retired salaried workers older than age 65 starting at the beginning of 2009 (Detroit Free Press, 2/11).

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