Association of Ameritech/SBC Retirees Blue Bulletin            Vol. 1, No. 1     

(September 7, 2006)

 

ATT to reduce monthly rate for Retirees.

 

By now some of you have received your DSL Bill for September and have noticed a reduction in cost. Well, after much on and off discussion for the last year, ATT has finally agreed to reduce the DSL charge for the entry level to $19.99. While the savings are less than what was hoped, it is in the right direction and makes DSL far more affordable than last month.

 

This was the result of discussions by ATT with both the retiree associations and the CWA to make DSL service more affordable.

 

While not a major victory, place this in the win column for our AASBCR!

 

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AASBCR Health Plan satisfaction survey.   [10/12/06 NOTE: Click here to open the online Medical Survey]

 

We are about to begin conducting a survey with our members regarding their level of satisfaction with the new ATT Health Plan administered by United Health Group. Please be on the lookout for the Questionnaire to arrive shortly. We ask that you take the time to respond to this inquiry. 
 

Association Director Ralph Kolderup has been developing this survey to gauge the effectiveness of this new plan. After meeting with AT&T personnel, AT&T has agreed to accept data that the AASBCR is compiling on the 2006 Medical plan.

 

Your Board will be presenting factual complaints from the retiree base regarding the AT&T Medical plan.  The only way to do this is to use actual cases.  The complaints fall into two major categories for retirees:

A)  Premium costs for retirees vs employees.

B)  Administrative issues with UHC in the paperwork and interpretations of policies between the health care provider, Medicare, and the retiree costs.

 

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Pension Reform Bill Finally Passed!

 

A comprehensive Pension Reform bill was just passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President Bush.  While a long way from perfect, this bill does much to protect current and future pensioner rights.  Much work was done by the National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN) and its members, including many AASBCR members, to keep Congress from caving in to corporate lobbying pressures to water this bill down to uselessness.

 

The NRLN consists of Group and Individual members.  The AASBCR is a group member (as are retiree groups from PAC-Bell, SNET, GM, Verizon, AT&T, IBM, Lucent to name a few).  Many Board and individual AASBCR members are also individual NRLN members, because we believe in the work the NRLN does – work that the AASBCR does not have the resources to do.   Their next target is Health Care – from protection against benefit erosion and excessive cost increases to Medicare reform (including Medicare-D – prescriptions.

 

The NRLN is holding a membership drive.  For more information about them, please visit their web site:  www.nrln.org.  And notice the pull-out navigation feature at the far left.