Will you have company-paid health insurance when you retire? Don’t count on it!
July 16, 2008 by Jean Murray
With the announcement yesterday from General Motors that they are cutting retiree health insurance, a lot of baby boomers are nervous. Me too. As Bill Losey would say, “I can’t guarantee SQUAT!” And neither can any employer.
My husband retired at the end of last month. His pension is secure, because it’s an annuity. I don’t see how his company could take that away. He was one of the last to be eligible for a defined benefit; his company, like many others, is going to defined contribution (401k) type plans, to control costs.
But health insurance is another matter. At present, he has coverage, but the company has said they will cap their costs, with the retiree (us) bearing the additional cost. Ouch!
While most baby boomers will not have a defined benefit like my husband, they will have to carefully manage their portfolios to make sure they have enough to pay for health insurance in addition to living expenses.
Are you in this situation? What will you do if your company slashes retiree health benefits? I got good information online from ehealthinsurance.com. I’m going to get on this now, before we are forced to.
My mom is going through the same thing with the insurances – she’s planning to retire within the next 12 months – her main focus (and reason for still working) has been health care – and making sure that she is “vested” with life time coverage – not necessarily paid-for – but at least eligible to be part of the plan.
It is too bad to see people lose their health insurance when they thought they would have it in retirement!
Can a business owner expect to receive health insurance benefits to be paid by the new owner after the sale of the business is final?
Good question! I would guess you could try to negotiate this along with everything else during the sale. You might have to stay on in some capacity so the insurance company can consider you part of the group.
Anyone else know about this?