When we retire, most of us have to go on Medicare because our employers do not provide health care insurance for their retirees and though we don’t have the coverage, we will be footing the bill for the auto worker unions to continue providing health care to their retirees:
One reason the public so distrusts the health care plan being considered by Congress is that so many troublesome details keep bubbling out of the massive legislation.
The latest example is the $10 billion taxpayers will be asked to shell out to prop up the United Auto Workers’ retiree health insurance program.
[...]
In effect, it would ask every taxpayer, regardless of whether they’ll have health insurance coverage themselves after they retire — and most won’t — to chip in to maintain the UAW’s coverage, which even after the union’s givebacks is still better than what the average American worker receives.
This is after we’ve already given them the U.S. auto industry, why should we keep supporting them?
(via)
posted August 29, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Once again, Michele reports information that is not factual. I know it would defeat your purpose, but it only takes a few minutes on Google to find the real facts from multiple reliable sources (hotair = not reliable). Is Michele going to change her title to reflect the truth?
First – it has not been passed by Congress – it has been passed by House and Senate Committees. It must pass in the full House and Senate, and differences in the two chambers’ versions be reconciled before the proposal becomes final.
Second – individuals eligible for Medicare are not receiving the assistance
Third – UAW is not receiving $10 billion – it would reduce their cost of health insurance.
Fourth – it is designed to extend medical insurance to tens of millions of retired Americans ages 55 to 64
The UAW is estimated to have about 675,000 retirees and surviving spouses – statistics for age is not available.
The temporary reinsurance program will cover medical costs such as a hip replacement or other major operations, said Richard L. Kaplan, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign who specializes in legal issues for the elderly.
It won’t cover the more expensive cost of someone dying of cancer or the less expensive, but predictable, cost of procedures such as a colonoscopy, he said.
Autoworkers See Help From $10 Billion Fund in U.S. Health Plan
http://tinyurl.com/kkb3wl (Bloomberg)
http://www.ebri.org/
posted August 29, 2009 at 5:14 pm
You gotta give the conservatives one thing. They whine more than anybody.
posted August 29, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Here is the problem. In 2007, when the UAW negotiated the VEBA and the Big Three dumped a whole lot of cash into it, top UAW boss Ron Gettlefinger crowed in the media that there was enough money to last 80 years. He did this to quell criticism that the VEBA was underfunded. Now we find the critics were correct and we are all going to pay for it.
However, the bigger issue that has yet to be examined is whether the UAW knew (when it agreed to accept GM and Chrysler stock for VEBA ‘credits’ and cash) that it was going to get additional funds in the health care bill. If so, it sounds like the UAW and the car czar may have negotiated a deal that was a (just a tad) fraudulent.
posted August 30, 2009 at 1:49 am
“In effect, it would ask every taxpayer, regardless of whether they’ll have health insurance coverage themselves after they retire — and most won’t”
Yes they will have coverage. As you said in the beginning, they would have Medicare. And nothing stops any person to save enough money to purchase private supplemental insurance. I’m sure Michele is doing just that.
posted August 30, 2009 at 6:18 am
I think the UAW never learned the story about the goose and golden egg. And in this administration, it doesn’t have to.
posted August 30, 2009 at 3:44 pm
How is this from a “Reformed” perspective?
posted August 31, 2009 at 11:12 am
Autoworkers do not receive million dollar bonuses as part of their contract agreements – unlike executives at AIG, Goldman Sachs, etc. One of the things they have in writing is healthcare coverage (and only because the UAW fought for it decades ago did any company EVER offer healthcare as a benefit. That’s not just labor history, that’s U.S. history) – but with the new VEBA concession, it too is now some pretty shaky coverage at that. But guess what? They’ll need it. When W entered office, he quickly dismantled many important ergonomic safety protocols. Ever stood on your feet for thirty years, repeatedly bending, twisting, lifting and exerting eight hours a day, forever speeding up as union work rules get weakened and assembly lines come faster and faster? My girlfriend’s mom literally broke her spine in two from repetitive motion injuries at Delphi. I wouldn’t do that job even if it did pay $73/hr. – which it doesn’t and never did. Today’s autoworkers earn around $15/hr – and they aren’t even covered by the VEBA. You can attack autoworkers with more zeal and venom than you can muster for the people who brought this whole mess about – the bankers – but you’ll look like an ignorant, mean-spirited, misguided, petty classist fool. Instead of berating unions and autoworkers, maybe we should join them, all working people, to combat the real leaches on Wall Street and K Street.
posted January 3, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Public D+
You put it together so well. I can’t improve on what you have said about UAW health care (dead on) can only add to it. For many years (decades) small job shops and companies (non union) would ask for benefits from their employers by saying that is what the Unions have, and they would get some not all (of course not fought or negotiated for)benefits. Safety procedures,job conditions,mandates and every type of protection for the work place worker (Union…and Non) were designed to keep them safe. Sooooooo much was created by Union workers that it literally defined health care in this country.
Can you imagine if there was no template for the average worker to compare too? Chinese workers would be shocked by the conditions of the average American worker.