Free health insurance for state retirees?

First, let me say that I think state employees in general work hard and should receive good pay and benefits. That is not the issue. However, in this day and age, when they receive benefits that far outstrip anything in the private sector and far outstrip that of other public sector employees, they should be called out.

A good example can be found in the Daily Herald May 10. The Illinois House agreed to a plan to stop providing free health insurance for state employees once they retire. A very reasonable proposal in this day and age. But the deputy director of the union that covers state employees, AFSCME, called it “shocking” and “a serious blow to people in fixed incomes.” A few things need to be pointed out to the deputy director, Roberta Lynch, as well as all AFSCME employees.

A decreasing number of private sector employees even get health benefits from their employers any more. They have to find their own coverage.

For those that do, in almost all cases, those benefits are dropped completely when they retire. That is why many people work until they are 65 and can pick up Medicare.

Most other public sector employees pay a partial part of the premium for their health insurance. As a retired federal employee, for example, I pay for about 50 percent of the cost of my health insurance, which comes out to about $285 per month, an amount that I consider fair and reasonable for myself and the taxpayer. No retired federal employee receives free health insurance when they retire.

While I am not sure of this, I would think that state of Illinois retirees receive periodic cost-of-living increases and are not really on fixed incomes. By the way, most retirees are, in fact, on fixed incomes.

My advice to Roberta Lynch would be this: Times have changed, and how about living in the 21st Century and not the 1960s? Our state is broke, and changes like this are reasonable and sorely needed.

Gary Koca

Pingree Grove