After a near-implementation of Medicare Advantage health coverage for state of Delaware retirees two years ago, as well as a large public outcry against it, the Delaware General Assembly is now considering two bills that seek to rebuild trust among those opponents. House Bill 281 would repeal that health care plan as an option for pensioners, while House Bill 282 would alter the makeup of the State Employee Benefits Committee. What are your thoughts about these proposals? How can the state move forward?
- Pass the bills without amendments. — Nancy Knight
- Passing House bills 281 and 282 with no amendments will help. The State Employees Benefits Committee in its current form is a major source of this distrust. — Kathy Steward Aldridge
- Pass both House bills 281 and 282 with no amendments. — Marc Young
- These are great bills. They should be passed as written. The amendments attached undermine the work of the Retiree Healthcare Benefits Advisory Subcommittee, the subcommittee that spent months and thousands of hours working on behalf of state retirees (and, indeed, all retired people), as Medicare Advantage, a privatized form of Medicare, is a substandard health insurance option and should be eliminated. Legislators should pass the bills without amendments. — Connie Merlet
- I honestly don’t think, with very few exceptions, that the state officials give a darn about building trust with the state retirees, as evidenced by the total lack of response from the multitude of calls, emails, texts and contacts made over the last year-plus from the retirees to the administration. They could have bought a lot of goodwill by simply admitting that an egregious decision had been made and that they would work with us to fix it. Instead, it’s been silence, excuses, failure to respond and total lack of responsibility and respect. I am well aware that tough budget decisions have to be made and that everybody has to give, but until the retirees made it impossible for them to ignore us, they would’ve been perfectly happy to continue to do so. Pathetic. — Rebecca
