Retirees' Health Care (please read)

[napwife]

Is there anyone who is retired and has an HMO for medical? If so what is the name of it and what is your location? My husband retired from NAP after 31 years. We are not of medicare age and won't be for a while. We were blessed with having an HMO for the past 25 years. Since the union took over our medical benefits we were now given TCN Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Imagine my surprise (shock) when I had my physical and received a statement from Blue Cross that it does not cover preventative or routine care. My bill is for $335.00. My husband was a proud union man and supported and believed in his union and that retirees would be protected. Retirees are on a fixed income. I guess the days of having physicals are over. By the time you wait for any cancer symptoms to show up to make you go to the doctor it will probably be at a stage 2 or 3. I think paying for preventative care would be far less expensive. I urge anyone who had an HMO and now is under a tradition care to write letters to your union and to the Solidarity House. We retirees need to stick together and fight because as one we have lost our voice. No one is going to protect us but ourselves.

[fatfender]

Is there anyone who is retired and has an HMO for medical? If so what is the name of it and what is your location? My husband retired from NAP after 31 years. We are not of medicare age and won't be for a while. We were blessed with having an HMO for the past 25 years. Since the union took over our medical benefits we were now given TCN Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Imagine my surprise (shock) when I had my physical and received a statement from Blue Cross that it does not cover preventative or routine care. My bill is for $335.00. My husband was a proud union man and supported and believed in his union and that retirees would be protected. Retirees are on a fixed income. I guess the days of having physicals are over. By the time you wait for any cancer symptoms to show up to make you go to the doctor it will probably be at a stage 2 or 3. I think paying for preventative care would be far less expensive. I urge anyone who had an HMO and now is under a tradition care to write letters to your union and to the Solidarity House. We retirees need to stick together and fight because as one we have lost our voice. No one is going to protect us but ourselves.

 

You might want to go back through some of the older posts as this subject has been gone over before. The last I heard was that there are no HMO's for retirees anymore. I did hear that the union was talking to some other companies about HMO's and now the original carriers want to reopen talks cause they don't want to lose out. So really who knows. I haven't run into anyone lately that has been to any retirees meetings to get any more info. Might want to check with a benifits rep on the status of that. In Ohio they are offering Kaiser Permanente which is an HMO. Like I said, might be worth a call. I'm assuming NAP is Norfolk, if you don't have a local rep down there anymore, try some of the other reps at other plants or at national.