|
Association of
Ameritech/SBC Retirees
(November 24, 2006)
Proudly
representing retirees from the new AT&T Midwest Region, SBC Midwest
Region,
Ameritech, as well as the five Bell Companies in
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin
To the AASBCR
Membership
November 2006
Your Board of Directors
conducted a survey asking for your input regarding the 2006 AT&T Medical
plan. The objectives of the survey include the following:
·
To make every
AT&Tempt to influence AT&T Sr. Management to change or modify the new
consumer driven plan to a more even distribution of premium costs for all
retirees and employees.
·
Send a message to
AT&T that the administrative problems in dealing with UHC are not
acceptable and must be improved.
·
Provide the
Board with factual data that will be used to represent the views of
retirees to AT&T and the US Congress and ask for fairness with regards to
health care coverage.
The questions were related to
your overall medical charges from the medical providers, what the AT&T
plan paid for and what expenses were self paid The survey asked if the
plan was worth the expense. And, the survey asked for specific problems
when dealing with UHC or Caremark.
Over 12% of the membership
responded to the survey. The following issues are the key points that were
highlighted in the survey.
·
UHC must improve
its administrative routines in dealing with the retiree and the medical
provider. Specific complaints and issues will be presented to Sr.AT&T
Management.
·
AT&T has
implemented a medical plan that has created classes of retiree costs based
on age, date of retirement and salary levels at retirement.
·
The AT&T plan paid 56% of medical provider charges for
Non-Medicare eligible retirees.
(The non-Medicare Retiree picked up the remainder or about 44%.)
·
The AT&T plan paid
9.5% of medical provider charges for Medicare eligible retirees. (Medicare paid 51% and the Medicare
retiree paid 39.5%)
·
90% of the survey
participants did not feel that they were receiving a fair return for their
annual AT&T premium costs (defined as a contribution by AT&T).
Your Board thanks those
members for taking the time to respond to the survey. We will continue to
bring the key issues that we share as retirees to AT&T. We will continue
to make our views be known in the US Congress. And we intend to let our
views be known in the major news media across the Midwest.
Finally, the Board wishes
everyone a safe and wonderful time during the Holiday season.
AASBCR, a non-profit organization, was formed in 2002 to represent
Ameritech retiree issues to SBC, renamed AT&T as part of the recent merger
of SBC and AT&T. For more information on the organization please check
the web site at
www.aasbcr.org.
Please share this newsletter by e-mail with your Retiree and Near-Retiree
friends. Send
|