JH 48 Trust Us (continued)

Jackie Dammbert - Lawyer Consultant
(Dilbert playing the roll of Pangbert)

(Click image to enlarge)
Now that LTD has proposed a health plan which has the possibility to leave you bankrupt, in debt and reduce your pay - the question is, where do you stand?

What if you have $800 in your HSA account, and you find out you need a triple by-pass heart operation? The cost for the medical procedure that will save your life, is about $45,000.00. You find that you cannot save anything in your HSA because of on-going costs. So, you pay $800 from your HSA, that has a deductible of $10,000, so you still owe $9,200 for the medical procedure. Plus, you have to be off work for 2 to 3 months. So how do you pay the $9,200? LTD does not care.

Are there winners in this deal? Yes, LTD and the insurance company "A." Let Joe explain. Your hospital bill says $45,000.00. But insurance company "A" has a secret agreement with the hospital to only pay the hospital, say, $33,750.00 for your heart by-pass surgery. But, you don't share in this discount. You see, the hospital and insurance company "A" know they have a sucker on the line. You pay your 10 grand deductible FIRST. That means the insurance company "A" only has to actually pay $23,750.00. BUT WAIT, insurance company "A" has a re-insurance agreement with another re-insurance company "B," to lay off some of their risk, and to pay big claims over $40,000.00. So insurance Company "B" pays $5,000 to Insurance Company "A," and that leaves insurance company "A" with a remaining bill of $18,750.00. So how much was your share in the end? You get stuck with 53% of the actual cost! Yes, brothers and sisters, this is a likely scenario.

You will need medication every day now for the rest of your life, too. So, saving any money in the HSA for the future is not very likely. Do you get a feeling that bake sales and money drives may be necessary for our fellow workers? This might be a great plan if you make more than $110,000 per year like Boss Hamm, but not for us middle class working families.

If we are forced to accept this plan, we go backwards decades. Once you do it, it is hard to go back. So if we are forced, it truly is a 'taking' of our benefits. How do we ever go back? We also have to place our trust in LTD, in holding our account in a Trust - like our pension, which is nearly 25% under funded. LTD is trying to slip one past us with a typical bait and switch bargaining deal. Pretty soon we may hear "you better do this, or else" ... or the phrase, if we accept this sham - "LTD will respect you in the morning." Not likely.

So, what happens if we do change the plan one day, and after we have put our own money in the plan and money we negotiated from LTD - which is ours too. Well, the plan is dissolved, and the assets are paid out WITH A 10% PENALTY, and income taxes that you did not expect. Such a deal - nothing but a loss. What's the alternative? LTD holds the money forever in Trust, and pays it out to you at 65 for medical reimbursements a few bucks here, a few bucks there. Try to picture this scenario. None of the people deciding this nightmare will be around to remember anything, and records - well, they have a way of becoming lost. Oh, and the burden is on you to remember that you have these funds. It sucks. Just say no!

In Solidarity,
Joe Hill
JH 48