7 thoughts on “USPS: New law will effect employee health and retirement benefits.”

1. Union and NAME of Local/Branch
   APWU - Philadelphia, PA Area Local
   Office held, if any
   Retiree Activist and Advocate
   Email Address
   RZelznick@aol.com

   Dan,

   Surely you know OPM does NOT get “their hot little hands on the negotiations” – ever. They perform an administrative function only.

   The membership were fed bullshit by APWU HQ, other postal unions and, of course, postal Management. They worked in collusion to convince the rank and file to pressure their respective Congressional Reps to allow us to give away a very important promised benefit.

   I tried to educate as many as I could on my social media platforms but was written off as some sort of anti-union deranged conspiracy theorist.

   The sheep that bought into all of this Medicare Integration bullshit can now reap what they have sown.

   Happy Retirement!

2. Union and NAME of Local/Branch
   Retired from APWU Local 497 (Springfield MA Area Local.)
   Office held, if any
   President, VP. etc.
   Email Address
   drkuralt@comcast.net

   I was active in the USPS for more than 42 years; I came in when the P.O. was still the P.O. I was V.P. of my local for 14 years and President for 7. I never heard of the phrase “pay consultation processes”

   I don’t believe that USPS is going through the rigmarole that it is going through for our benefit. They are no doubt anxious to eliminate the prepayment of retirement but there is more to it than that. I sat in on national negotiations as an observer once and the people on their side regard negotiations as a joke.

   If memory serves me correctly, we got screwed blue and tattooed the last time OPM got their hot little hands on the negotiations. I think that the goal of the USPS is now as it was then. It is to improve their position, as they see it. We have to understand that they are a lot smarter than we are. That’s tongue in cheek.

   Maybe I am just too jaded, having spent the time that I have in the business and having dealt with the people that I have. I remember one local President saying that he was glad that things weren’t the same in his office as they were in mine.

   I believe that we should stand by for the ram because that is their goal. Never let an opportunity pass you by.

3. Union and NAME of Local/Branch
   Retired from APWY Local 497 (Springfield MA Area Local.)
   Office held, if any
   President, VP. etc.
   Email Address
   drkuralt@comcast.net

   I just got out of a skilled nursing facility and haven’t received a bill for the stay. In was in for 6 weeks. I didn’t get a bill from the nursing facility I was in from the middle of April through the middle of June.

   I had my daughter call national to ask about payment and the person she talked to said they didn’t know anything. My daughter was a member of the local, and a steward for 18 years.
   I then went online and got some information.

   Blue Cross (which is the plan I had before I retired – FEHB) said they covered medications and that was it. I asked BC/BS because I was under the impression Medicare A covered 30 days and I had been in the SNF for more than 30 days.

   I had received a letter from BC/BS saying that I would receive a new card from them, but I had to call them to get it. I still haven’t received it.

   I am disappointed (to put it mildly) with the APWU. When I was President of my local, I would have seen to it that my membership knew what was going on.

   National bought into this program and retired members shouldn’t have to search all over to find out what the plan does or doesn’t do. I had thought that something had been posted and I had missed it. Given the answer my daughter got when she called national, I doubt it.

   I was in rehab, as a result of having Parkinson’s, so this post is partly a repeat of an earlier one that I F—-d up (and since been deleted by RZ).

4. Union and NAME of Local/Branch
   Utica Area Local
   Office held, if any
   President
   Email Address
   Frederick.ashleyjr@gmail.com

   There are a lot of unanswered questions on this issue. Hopefully all the postal unions will have the information needed for retirees to make informed decisions.

   If FEHB premiums do not show significant reductions then we can say we got screwed. If premiums are reduced enough not to cause financial hardship then we got something good. The proof will be in the pudding.

5. Email Address
   rslitz@bellsouth.net

   I’m 86 years old – My husband was a postal service employee, retiring in 1989, and we have had NALC high Option Plan for over 20 years – My husband died in 2020 – I still have this insurance – Will I be forced to go into the NALC High Option Plan, Aetna Medicare Advantage in November 2024? I don’t want to give up my Original Medicare – I want it to be in control – Can I go into Blue Cross or another insurance option in November 24 in order to keep my Original Medicare?

6. Union and NAME of Local/Branch
   APWU - Philadelphia, retired
   Email Address
   Roland444@aol.com

   Anytime new legislation has the word “reform” or is sponsored “bipartisan” you know you’re “screwed.”

7. Union and NAME of Local/Branch
   APWU - Philadelphia, PA Area Local
   Office held, if any
   Retiree Activist and Advocate
   Email Address
   RZelznick@aol.com

   “Beginning in January 2025, the new law will require all newly Medicare-eligible USPS annuitants and their Medicare-eligible covered family members to enroll in Medicare Part B to maintain their postal health coverage.”

   “Medicare-Eligible” also includes those employees who have taken Disability Retirements from the agency, no matter what their age. Why, for example, should a 40 year old disabled retiree on a fixed income have to pay an additional $2000/year to maintain FEHB?

   The ideal of “an injury to one is an injury to all” is dead in the postal unions and in others who supported this atrocious postal reform legislation.