Among the people affected by cost increases proposed by the Public Employees Insurance Agency will be retired workers who receive the insurance benefits.
“It’s disgusting,” said Spud Terry, 81, president of the retirees with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in West Virginia.
Terry’s ire is lit over the increased costs versus his flat income: “I retired in 1999, and I’m on the same nickel that I was in 1999.”
The proposal that PEIA is taking out for public comment includes a 12% premium increase for retirees in the program. That includes both retirees who are old enough to qualify for Medicare as well as some people who retired before being old enough to qualify.
PEIA’s five-year plan already reflected a 10% increase for retirees, but this proposal accelerates that. According to a revised five-year plan, retirees could be in line for escalating increases of 15% for 2017, 17.5% for 2028 and 20% for 2029.
PEIA is proposing a range of cost increases — including higher deductibles — to try to fill an estimated $113 million budget gap next fiscal year. The cost increases would apply to inpatient and outpatient visits, prescriptions and more.
Labor organizations have been questioning all aspects of the cost increases — but a particular aspect of their concern has been directed toward how retirees will absorb the higher cost of insurance.
“It’s a huge concern,” said Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, speaking in an interview with MetroNews.
“You have retirees who haven’t received any pay raise, any increase in their income, since they retired and are living on a true fixed income and you’ve seen all the other costs increase and now you want to continue to increase their health insurance. They’re the ones who can least afford this.”
Lee asked a series of questions during a PEIA meeting last week, including whether the premium increases for retirees can be translated into an overall dollar amount. The answer was $2.6 million for non-Medicare retirees and $7.15 million for retirees eligible for Medicare.
He also underscored the anticipated increases for the coming years.
“It looks like retirees are really going to take hits in the outlying years projected — and of course we don’t know what those costs are going to be; we don’t know what’s going to happen with health insurance,” Lee said. “But I’m looking at 2028 with 17.5% and 2029 with a 20 percent increase for retirees.”
PEIA Director Brian Cunningham responded by saying it’s not yet clear what the trend of insurance costs might be at that point.
“We just don’t have a crystal ball right now. There’s so many things in flux. What we definitely don’t want to do is fine ourselves in the same position that the PEIA active fund is in now. So we’re trying to make sure that we project the premium increases, benefit changes and others so that we don’t find ourselves in the position this position again. And if we can back off of those premium increases we’ll certainly do that,” Cunningham said.
Elaine Harris, representative for the Communications Workers of America, also addressed the effects on retirees.
“Some of those retirees, and you all know, they struggle every month with what they can pay and their other obligations and all,” Harris told the PEIA Finance Board.
AARP West Virginia, which has 230,000 members in the state, also expressed concern about the financial effects on retirees.
“Thousands of our members across the state are active or retired educators, school service personnel and public employees, and the availability and affordability of health insurance continues to play a key factor in their retirement decisions. Given the importance of health insurance for maintaining financial security in retirement, the increasing costs of retiree health insurance coverage for West Virginia’s PEIA members is a very serious concern,” said Gaylene Miller, state director of AARP West Virginia.
“Skyrocketing prescription drug costs along with household expenses such as groceries, utility bills and health care spending are taking more and more money out of the pockets of older West Virginians, many of whom are living on fixed incomes and have nowhere to turn to cover the rising costs of increased premiums.”
PEIA will take its plan out for public comment at locations around the state next month.
The public hearings include: 6 p.m. Nov. 7 at the Beckley-Raleigh Convention Center; 6 p.m. Nov. 12 at Holiday Inn Martinsburg; 6 p.m. Nov. 14 at The Highlands Event Center in Triadelphia. Ohio County; 6 p.m. Nov. 18 during a virtual town hall; 6 p.m. Nov. 19 at Erickson Alumni Center in Morgantown; and 6 p.m. Nov. 21 at the Culture Center in Charleston.
Spud Terry, who remains active with the Alliance of Retired Americans for West Virginia, said retired workers are likely to be too discouraged to fuss much.
“They’re able,” he said of going to the public hearings, “but they have given up.”
Terry has concluded that current West Virginia lawmakers aren’t interested in helping retired state employees financially.
“You know, there for a while when there was a bunch of Democrats and a bunch of Republicans there was a chance. But there’s no chance in hell for them to do much of anything for the retirees. It’s just not going to happen,” he said in a telephone interview with MetroNews.
“I was up there as a volunteer lobbyist for 18 years, and I had people say ‘We’ll do this and we’ll do that.’ And then the Finance chair says ‘No, can’t do that.’ And then somebody else says they can’t do that.”
His wife, Marie, chimed with a practical reason many retirees would be unable to attend the public hearings: because it’s hard to get to the evening events.
“Now we’re talking about people that are retired. We no longer have the eyesight to drive of a night like we used to. And most of those meetings are of the evening to where if we would have to drive very far or a different part of the county, those individuals would have to have somebody to drive them,” said Marie Terry, 76, who is also a retired member of AFSCME.
Spud Terry jumped back onto the call to conclude, “We’re old people, and we’re sick and our pensions aren’t going up — a little bit on Social Security, you know, once in a while — but there’s no way to supplement our income. Hey, you think 80- 90-year-old people can go out and get a meaningful job? No way. Workers that are still young, they can do a second job. Some of them do a third job. But we just physically cannot do it any more.
“And we can’t afford what they’re doing to us.”
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