The Get Sick Later Die Quicker Plan

An article regarding company Navistar’s retirement benefits plan caught my attention. Shortly after reading it, I saw another article on retirement plans in general and it appears that they are headed the way of the dinosaur. The Navistar case is not an uncommon one, but it is more specific to changing drug benefit coverage than to axing the plans altogether. Many benefits managers do want people to switch to Medicare part D drug coverage as soon as possible. It is suggested that the Medicare drug plan has improved and will be less of a burden to retirees than it currently is with the infamous donut hole. Medicare D, however, may not cover all drugs or the most expensive ones – of course, that is fine by me, but I am not reliant on those drugs.

In Navistar’s case, again, they are one of many who receive government subsidies because they provide drug coverage. Those subsidies are also going to end with Health Care Reform but even with the subsidy, the cost of buying meds for former employees as well as current ones has just become unsustainable. According to the article that is published in Monday’s WSJ, this subsidy has been 600 dollars per year per person in the plan. Holy COWS. That is about 55 dollars a month on prescription drugs – a lot of drugs if they are the ten dollar generics and one very expensive drug if not.

Here are my main thoughts on this. First, the perk of having lifetime insurance from an employer is fading fast and probably will become extinct. Why it worked and why it won’t work have to do with health, health care and aging. The same issue plagues the Social Security system which had the same business model. People were NOT supposed to live this long. It would be great if they lived long well, but they don’t. We have made advances with medications and testing, which means the younger employees cost a lot of money to insure and the older retirees cost a lot of money to insure and do NOT die.

We must find a way to condense all this sickness into five or ten years, preferable after age 90, instead of living with disease from age 35 to 95. We must also address the incredibly high costs for medication and the use of medication that does not have any direct impact on health. Imaging is another area where too much is received and can actually lead to other unrelated health problems.

As I pondered my blog idea for today out loud to a friend, not yet 65- she brought up still another point. Forget Medicare part D – she doesn’t want A – B or any other letter because she keeps seeing signs that say, No New Medicare Patients…. Well – Medicare and Medicaid don’t pay much – and are riddled with fraud anyways….

There has never been a greater need or reason to pay for prevention. We cannot afford to test, treat and medicate all of these people for diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, heart disease, other obesity related illnesses, chronic lung disease and the like. The only way to salvage these health plans is to prevent the diseases that drain their coffers.