Potash Co. of America retirees losing insurance

[kpete]

Source: Associated Press

Potash Co. of America retirees losing insurance

Posted at: 02/20/2011 5:05 PM
By: The Associated Press

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) - Potash Company of America retirees will lose their health insurance as of April 1.

A court-appointed seven-member board of trustees that oversees the PCA Retiree Trust and Double D Insurance says $7.5 million put in trust for retirees in 1993 has been spent.

Trustee George Bartlett says the high cost of health care for the aging retirees and widows of retirees, coupled with the banking crisis of 2008 and 2009, took a financial toll on the trust.

The trust office will close March 31. Trustees urge retirees to submit medical claims as soon as possible so payments can be made before the office closes.

Read more: http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1982971.shtml?cat=504

[virgogal]

1. God, I'm a retiree and this is my worst fear.

[jtuck004]

10. Wonder what size fund needs to get wiped out to get a lot of people mad.

Would have been more trouble if it was their pensions...

The government can loan $23 trillion to banks, then pay them hundreds of billions in bailout funds as interest. This little thing was $7.5 million. And just couldn't save it, huh?

Now a bunch of 65, 70, 75 years olds out of care? Dependent on Medicare only now, I think.

More of the story at http://www.currentargus.com/ci_17434842

Prior theft of money, then this little fund was established for about 740 employees. Now down to 140. Those with assets will have to
buy Medicare D somewhere - according to one of the pensions folks about $100/mo. Which does no good if you have not an extra $100/mo.

That's sad, but at least they have Medicare if they are at retirement age and had a income for social security, I think.

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[northoftheborder]

4. This is the beginning of the end of employee insurance.

Maybe an opportunity to at least expand Medicare.

[WhiteTara]

5. sounds like they speculated with the people's

money. They should be charged with fiduciary crimes.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. but, EVERYONE did that.

Even the brilliant geniuses at Harvard speculated, and they lost several billions in the process.

There are hundreds of towns and municipalities that were given "sound advice" on what to do with pension, rainy day, and infrastructure moneys. And they followed that advise. Now those funds are empty. (while the wall street experts who convinced them to take their advice are still reaping, nay, RAPING America for hundreds of billions

[WhiteTara]

15. we need to clen that cesspool. n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

16. that we do. and soon.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. Good! That'll teach 'em to be part of the other 98%!

If there are any pennies left, they should send them to national elected Democrats as a thank you.

[on point]

8. Many funds were said to be 'overpaying' in good times, so redirected payments to execs and dividends

This could have been seen a mile off. I know I saw it coming. When times were good, stocks booming etc, many trust funds were told to use high rates of return as 'normal' and so reduced their contributions. The money then went in many many cases to bonuses for the executive staff - 'look how they saved the company money' it was said at the time!; or were paid as dividends to stockholders. These never should have been paid and the funds should have stayed the course so that they had enough money.

Frankly, I think this constitutes fraud. They promised employees the money as part of their labor contract and didn't put aside enough money.

I also wonder about these companies, like GM, that declared bankruptcy so they wouldn't have to make good on employee contracts, but yet didn't see fit to cancel exec multi-million dollar pension schemes and benefits.

Another case of fraud I say.

[ljm2002]

12. Apparently contracts with labor aren't worth the paper they're written on...

...while contracts with executives and banksters and high-flying hedge fund managers are sacred and cannot be broken, ever.

That is the current state of contract law in this country, and it s.t.i.n.k.s.

[raouldukelives]

13. + 10000

[Journeyman]

14. That's why I left the corporate world decades ago. . .

They were using pension funds to pay for R&D and corporate bonuses back in the '70s. Anyone who believed they would honor their commitments when times grew tough (or even through good times, once they realized what a cash cow they had on hand) merely lived a pipe dream. The numbers were always against us -- too many of us counting on the integrity of a few of them. It was never going to end satisfactorily.

[LiberalEsto]

9. "Trust" is an oxymoron

It's obvious that you can't trust a company that creates a trust.

[blackspade]

11. Wall Street and this pension's managers get a free pass...

Again, while retirees pay the price.
These trustees should be held accountable, but they won't.
Shameful.