Ex-IBM sales veteran sues for access to health benefits A former IBM enterprise salesperson has sued the mainframe titan claiming its recent healthcare benefit changes represents age discrimination. On Thursday, George Adomavicius, who worked for IBM for 42 years before retiring in October 2020, filed a pro se lawsuit – meaning he's representing himself in court – against the IT …
The tragedy is that US healthcare spending per capita is the highest in the world by a considerable measure. For less money (roughly half!) they could have healthcare like Germany or Sweden, but instead they stick with their inequitable insurance funding system, and expensive privately provided care.
US healthcare is shite.
(we knew that)
However, I thought healthcare (and retirement plans) came under the banner of 'deferred benefit' which means the money paid into the healthcare plan while he was an employee should cover him in retirement.
Oh and for the UK readers thinking about private health care plans over here..... make sure you read the small print "Pre-existing conditions not covered"
..like breathing?
Exactly. If you insist on continuing such practices, you really can't expect your healthcare provider to pay for the consequences of your actions.
(I'm not sure whether our US healthcare system more closely resembles something by Orwell or something by Kafka. I'm sure that both would find it vastly entertaining. If you live in America, it is an excellent idea not to get sick.)
My insurance issue is with critical illness and accident insurance, not medical insurance, but it's still run by the same insurance companies
I've suffered from tinnitus since I was about 8, after contracting German measles as a child. It's a constant singing in both ears at a fixed frequency, but does not seriously affect the rest of my hearing (the frequency I hear can mask quiet real sounds at that frequency, but as it's something like D#7 or possibly an octave higher, which is quite high) It's not a day to day issue except when listening to quiet music (but is useful as an inbuilt tuning fork when tuning musical instruments!).
Some time ago, I took out this critical illness insurance, and during the discovery interview mentioned that I had this tinnitus (which is not that unusual at my age, I'm sure), and after being asked whether I had taken any medical advice (which I hadn't, because I'd had this for over 40 years at the time and it is quite normal for me), I got a quote which excluded all ear and deafness claims, together with riders on all of the potential accident situations in which hearing could be a factor.
I've since done hearing tests which show my hearing is actually quite good for my age barring this condition. I would change the insurance, but I have developed another chronic condition now (which I haven't claimed anything for - it was almost certainly caused by the Covid vaccine so claiming is problematic) and have been advised that I would get a much worse deal now if I changed because of it.
It's ridiculous what the insurance companies want to exclude, but of course, they are trying to maximise what they charge and not lose business, while minimising what they are have to pay out.
Ask your doctor whether they would get on a Medicare Advantage plan. They'll say no, even if very quietly. They've seen it in operation.
That enrollment is at 54% shows the power of lying in advertising multiplied by the gullibility of Americans. As also seen in the 2016 election.
All capitalist companies care about is money... So the answer is simple. You make the punishment for breaking laws/regs such as making employee benefits unreasonable, or selling consumer products that aren't fit for purpose.. so astronomically high that it is no longer in a corporations interests to violate them.
Make the default punishment, 10x the saving. You deny 3000 people, 10,000 in their benefit... that's not 30 million they have to pay out... it's 300 million.
Hitting them in the bottom line is the only thing they will understand and it's the only way they will ever make changes and stop these devious anti employer and anti consumer practices.
The UK does allow for the concept of punitive damages, but they're rarely applied. In most of Europe they're not permitted.
In the US punitive damages are quite often awarded, and can be up to four times the underlying harm element of damages. But clearly they don't deter corporations, and there's plenty of evidence that increasing the scale of penalties doesn't make much difference to the likelihood of a breach of law occurring. So I can't see that your proposal would work. I'd offer up the example of US financial services, who are regularly and routinely fined eye-watering sums, but year after year after year they keep doing things wrong. Have a look at the linked site, and you'll see that bad behaviour continues after after a staggering $380 billion of penalties - and that doesn't include UK or European penalties.
https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/?major_industry_sum=financial+services&order=agency_code&sort=
Then I'd argue that the punishment doesn't exceed the benefit... in savings or profits. They'll only change from greed over people when forced to... Maybe making the directors/board/shareholders culpable with criminal charges and mandatory minimum sentences.
I'm not an expert obviously... but it's the only way to force them to stop... wallet or liberty... preferably both. :)
what I don't understand is
a) why healthcare in the usa is so expensive, we just paid 12k euro for an operation here in europe, private hospital, ICU for a week etc, just for kicks we looked up how much the exact same op would cost in the USA, 200k+!!!
b) why do americans see healthcare as some kind of status symbol
c) why the hell americans put up with this??????!!!!!
I am a little surprised that IBMers do not set up a GoFundMe or similar account, to pay for enough to go get a lawyer or two for this sort of thing. The number of parties negatively impacted would mean each would not have to contribute much, probably there is a way to do it as a non-profit and make it tax deductible, plus most would recognize that IBM would not be prone to these sort of plays if it meant a lot of court fights.
IBM nearly caused me to lose the coverage I had on my husband's HRA. There were so few details given to us about what they were doing. I originally had I think $36,.000 in my FHA that they converted to an HRA that was managed by Via Benefits. I knew that once you used it it was gone, so I budgeted accordingly and I had around 7 years left when they surprised me with the request tot sign up for one of IBM's Medicare Advantage plans or you will lose your subsidy. First they lay you off (forced retirement basically) then after they give you this HRA they come back after 6 years and take what's left of it and put it in an account I cannot touch unless I play along with their plan. I wasn't ready to lose 18,000 dollars so I signed up. Luckily I called VIA to check on a few things and found out that if I took the IBM Advantage plan I would lose my coverage on my husbands HRA which was for life. Not a certain amount. I called UHC and IBM to verify and canceled the Advantage coverage just in the nick of time. I have Medicare and a plan F supplement, Also, I have Parkinson's disease and I don't know that I could get back on that without underwriting and I don't know if that would have been required here in North Carolina. They put what was left of my FHA/HRA into an account through OPTUM Bank and I just checked it and they are putting interest in every month. So if I change my mind (NOT) I can access that. But I suppose it will sit there for IBM and when I die it will go them instead of my husband.
IBM Retirees can join the "IBM US Retiree Benefits" Facebook group to share information about the issues in this article and other IBM retiree issues. Search for "IBM US Retiree Benefits" in the Facebook search bar.
Be sure to correctly answer the admission questions when requesting membership.
I find myself in the same situation. The IBM Future Healthcare Account had allowed me to use my funds for a Medigap plan that complimented my US Govt. Medicare coverage. With this “rule” change they are forcing me to put an insurance company between me and the Medicare benefits that I paid for all my life. If I don’t buy a product I don’t want (Advantage Plan) from a specific company (United Health Care) IBM will not allow me to use the funds promised to me.
Advantage Plans provide a higher profit margin for the insurance company, that is why they are constantly advertised on TV. You never see a Medigap commercial. Advantage plans have network limitations, require preapprovals for treatments and referrals, coverage is limited to service areas, tend to have higher deductibles and premiums and coverage can be canceled. Medicare does not have these negatives and the supporting Medigap plans have to meet govt’s standards (CMS).
One can suspect this is about money. I don’t know how this is reducing cost for IBM. I could be some kind of finders fee or an effort to drive retirees away from promised funds. I hope you are successful and such actions by Goliaths against us Davids deserve punitive damages. It would be interesting to see what you can find with discovery.
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