Washington Post
March 24, 2003
Bethlehem Retirees’ Benefits to End
By Adam Geller
Company-paid health benefits for 30,000 white-collar Bethlehem Steel retirees will end this month, after a bankruptcy judge Monday rejected a request to extend coverage through April.
Instead of the extension, the court approved an arrangement that might offer both union and salaried retirees reimbursement for two weeks of medical insurance.
The United Steelworkers of America, which represents retirees from union ranks, has already agreed to a deal that will see their members lose health insurance after March 31.
But a lawyer representing white-collar retirees argued that they needed more time, and would not have the benefit of alternative health insurance the union may be able to arrange for its retirees.
A. Dennis Terrell, the attorney for the salaried retirees:
“We have a lot of old people who don’t know what to do. They need time to figure out what to do.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20447-2003Mar24.html
Comment: Play or pay, employer-mandate models of reform are receiving support from a broad range of interests. But is this really what we want? Instead of being left stranded, not knowing what to do, these retirees could have been in a universal public program and would never have had to face their current dilemma.
Isn’t it time to provide permanent health security for everyone by establishing our own public program of universal insurance? We can afford it. What’s stopping us?