Speak Up: What should the state retiree benefit panel recommend to the governor?

The Retiree Healthcare Benefits Advisory Subcommittee, tasked with providing recommendations on proposals for retired state workers’ coverage, met Aug. 24 and considered several motions opposed by committee members who are part of the governor’s administration.

A motion to remove Medicare Advantage from consideration was presented by committee vice chair Rep. Paul Baumbach, D-Newark, and opposed by Department of Finance Secretary Rick Geisenberger, who noted that the subcommittee’s job is to evaluate retiree health care options in a fiscally sustainable way. Claire DeMatteis, committee co-chair and secretary of the Delaware Department of Human Resources, said the motion altered the committee’s authority that is limited by state law. The motion that Medicare Advantage be taken off the table was approved. Another motion was passed recommending the state follow its previous format of a three-year contract with two optional one-year extensions.

The subcommittee was set to meet again Sept. 8 and will also convene Sept. 28. Its report is due to Gov. John Carney and the legislature by Oct. 1.

How much say should state workers have over what the state offers them in retirement benefits? What is currently missing from the equation that should be considered?

• Why would the state of Delaware want any employees or retirees on a dysfunctional plan that doesn’t help the people it’s supposed to help? Is this trying to be done because the legislators have spent our money poorly? Current state employees and retirees definitely should have their voices heard because we were promised something by the state to offset less pay! Follow through! And good luck recruiting for future workers if you switch to Medicare Advantage because the only entity “advantaged” is the insurance company, not the workers! — Kathy Edwards
• We were promised excellent retirement benefits for working for less salary. My husband and I collectively worked 53 years. The state tried to shove a Medicare Advantage plan through without anyone noticing. Medicare Advantage is not what we were promised and would harm retirees. The state has known about this for decades and chose to ignore it and bought golf courses that no one wanted, instead of investing in their workforce. If they do not offer a workable retirement benefit such as Medicfill, they will have serious vacancies, because the one benefit employees counted on will not be provided. — Carol Cunningham Brown
• I worked for far less than my counterparts in other states and, therefore, receive far less in my pension than they do, probably as much as 50% less, but I always knew I would have my Blue Cross and Medicare to depend on when I retired. Now, I’m 77, and you want to take that away from me and replace it with a plan that might pay off for the state but would definitely reduce my available health benefits, and this, at a time when I’m too old to start over. Totally unfair. There doesn’t seem to be any state retirees/employees who consider Medicare Advantage an “advantage,” and there’s a reason for that. Because it isn’t. They tried to sneak it in in the middle of an enrollment period, not caring how we felt. Unscrupulous, at its best. Make it possible for retirees to have a say in what happens! — Patricia Collins
• With respect, the question isn’t how much say the state workers should have over their retirement benefits, but whether the state or any employer has the right to promise a certain compensation package and then unilaterally reduce it after the employee has already done the work. You make a deal, you come through with your side of it, and then, the other side reneges — not because they don’t have the money but because they’d just rather spend it on something else. — Joan DelFattore
• One thing they keep trying to hide is that these privatized plans completely replace the original Medicare that we all paid into our entire working lives. When forced into one of these Medicare Advantage plans, you no longer have real Medicare. Your Medicare is gone. What you have instead is whatever the insurance company cares to give you. No one in this country — not state employees and not anyone else — should be forced off original Medicare. That is just wrong. All workers should have a very real say in their retirement benefits. And it’s wrong to have people work for decades with the expectation that they would receive the benefits in place when they were hired — the benefits all retirees before them received — only to hear, “We were just kidding; here’s what we’re actually willing to give you.” — Tery Griffin C.
• I worked for the University of Delaware for 37 years, and my husband, Kevin Kerrane, worked for the university for 50 years. The issue is not about “say.” The issue is about the state of Delaware honoring its promised health care compensation package, not reducing it after the fact. — Katharine Carter Kerrane
• The Medicfill plan promised to us upon retirement morally should not be taken away from us when we will, most likely, need it the most. Medicare Advantage is fraud! The state should not be able to force this inferior option on us without our consent. Proper financial planning and execution should have been put in place when this promise to retirees was made. Politics should not be allowed to modify the program. — Barbara Clark McDowell