Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Ford retirees should match Ford's loyalty to them by never purchasing another Ford vehicle ever again and not promoting A-Plan sales to others either.

Ford retirees should match Ford's loyalty to them by never purchasing another Ford vehicle ever again and not promoting A-Plan sales to others either.

We will not know the true costs until they release them on Nov. 1. Anything right now is just speculation.

One of the great things about growing older is that you indeed grow wiser. You gain the ability to see things coming a mile away.
Older heads and wisdom can’t be transplanted to younger bodies, I wish they could to save the younger Ford USA heads the pain that is coming. Us older folks can see what is coming, we can read Ford like a book. We have 30-40 years experience reading Ford.

For the younger folks just remember you couldn’t walk, you solved that, you couldn’t talk, you solved that, you couldn’t read, you solved that, … you will eventually solve the riddle of spotting cons and exploitation, your brain just needs a bit more mileage and experience. We’ve all been there, and miss the innocence of youth, and the belief that we immortal and knew pretty much everything.

Has anyone received the "New approach to retiree health" notice from Ford? They are dropping us off the plan and giving us $6000.00 to through a HRA (heath reimbursement arrangement) through Via benefits -Marketplace. Not able to access cost yet. I will be sitting down when I do view them.

I guess that's it. Retirees just have to accept that they were betrayed by Ford. Fortunately most of can turn to medicare.

Whether or not you took the PRP in 2018 or just retired to get out of the nonsense, jacking up the healthcare costs without notice is totally unethical and should be illegal. Anyone that retired did the numbers and now they are dealing with radically unexpected expenses.

I agree with all comments about the increase in retiree health costs. When I called the NESC,
BCBS and the benefits administrator I received the same scripted response from all. The one unscripted thing I was told by the BCBS rep was that the PPO 2000 was offered for only a short time, she thought it was an option for one year only, can anyone verify this?
I feel betrayed by Ford and I feel that they used the PPO 2000 retiree health care plan to entice us into taking the PRP retirement.
Is anyone aware on any talk of legal recourse such as a class action suit?

Ford Motor Company has a long-standing history (50+ years) of providing salaried retiree's equivalent if not identical health care benefits as per the full-time salaried employees. This practice was continued through several extremely difficult economic recessions dating back to before the 1980’s even when the future existence of the company was in question (1982 & 2008 among others).
That said, now the company has suddenly and without notice backed out of the 50+ year practice of providing salaried retirees health insurance on par with the full-time employees. This is in my opinion is unethical as retirees had a reasonable expectation the 50+ year past precedence would be continued and based that past precedence on their retirement planning.

If the company had been forthright with their intentions to cut retiree health care at the time of my PRP acceptance I and many others may not have participated. This certainly does not seem in alignment of the company’s vision of being one of the most ethical companies out there.

Scary to consider what will happen when the economy takes a downturn. Actually, it is scary even if the economy does not take a downturn.

Now in 2020 the 2 health insurance plans offered are as follows:

PPO 3600 +HSA
You only/ You + family (spouse + children) $215/$430 and deductible for In-network
(You only/You + family) $3,600/$7,200

Until the 7200 deductible is met NOTHING is covered (including pr-scrip-ions) except preventative care (one physical, vaccines, pap smears, routine screenings). After deductible it is a 20% co-pay for most services, higher for ER, urgent care and specialists. There appears to be extra fees if your spouse works and declines their offered hc insurance because when we plugged our info in, the monthly rate was $560 per month

For the PPO 4000
You only/ You + family (spouse + children) $290/$580 and deductible for In-network
individual 4,000 family 8,000. After deductible 20% co-pay but Primary care visits are $30 and specialists $50, ER visits $150 otherwise basically the same.

These plans are for those of us who have not hit medicare age yet. I don't see how Ford can claim to be investing $6, ooo in each individuals benefit plan as the family rates are comparable to the open market. After 41 years of service this is frustrating and disappointing. How are families expected to
come up with an initial $13,920 for health insurance when they were promised comparable benefits after retirement?
The retirees really have no recourse as of yet but perhaps as others have mentioned media coverage and more importantly legislative pressure may curb this trend.

I can confirm that the cost increase for retirees is not justified by cost increases at BCBS. As Treasurer of a local church, I've just received the cost increases from BCBS for 2020. For an identical plan as in 2019 (which is far more generous than the BCBS plan that Ford is offering), the cost increase from last year is only 4.6%.

Yes, I'm extremely dissatisfied and angry that Ford has chosen to sock recent retirees with such a huge cost increase in one year! It's done so because it is easy to target retirees who have no recourse.

I know that Ford is self insured, but health care costs did not go up for BCBS this year (based on familiarity with other organizations that are not self funded and that use BCBS- this indicates to me that the huge $430 monthly increase (for a family) was not necessary based on this years rising costs (if so the other BCBS plans would have gone up too).

Based on the math, I will not take the Ford plan and will join on another plan that I have access to through my spouse. If people opt out, shouldn't Ford compensate them with some dollar amount because they are now off of Ford's healthcare books (would seem logical and is the practice at some other organizations for people that opt out).

I love Ford and am a heavy Ford investor, but feel that targeting retirees on fixed income is cold hearted. One of the strengths of Ford in the past has been the two way commitment between employees and the company that created a feeling of family that other automakers do not have. I think this gave Ford an advantage. Targeting retirees is not treating them like family.

Ford is also concerned about attracting skilled, high tech, youth to remain competitive, Part of the reason for all of the facilities expansions (Train Station and Dearborn Complex) is to appeal to such future employees. However, young people are bright enough to see what is going on.

Still a Ford fan, and grateful for all that Ford has done for me in the past, but this hurts.

My 2017 Ford is my last Ford. They showed that they have no allegiance to me and so I have none to them. I too took the PRP in 2018 and part of that calculation was the cost of HC. Glad I took the lump sum pension before they pull that rug out too.

I am just learning about this and am a bit shocked at this news. I expected some sort of increase For 2020 but this is extreme. I had carefully reviewed and based my decision to retire in 2018 on my estimated ongoing costs including healthcare (as one should) and this just flipped that analysis out the window and flipped off salaried retirees in general.

For what it’s worth I forwarded a link to this thread to the Free Press Business Desk at:

BUSINESS@FREEPRESS.COM

Do the same and maybe this can get some attention in the news.

I am a Ford retiree but I have Medicare and not Ford medical benefits. As a result I do not have access to the exact costs of the new coverage. If I did have those facts I’d contact one of the local news channels. They usually love a story like that.

It is still shameful that Ford salaried retirees are singled out to be tasked with higher costs. Retirees are on fixed incomes and did not expect this. Certainly they should not bear the burden alone.

I hope the press catches wind of this

Exactly

Law of large numbers – as the number of employees gets large the payout becomes very predictable. Don't need BCBS because there is a miniscule risk of extreme payouts. (I used to teach statistics).

If you had a small company the payouts would vary a lot and you would pay BCBS extra to cover the risk.

Why wouldn't you be self insured as a company this big? I get farming out the administration.

This article seems to confirm Ford health insurance is self funded, administered by BCBS, and does not currently cover injuries from auto accidents.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2019/10/19/michigan-no-fault-law-health-insurance/3984808002/

Certainly salaried retired are the easiest target to offset the puported increased costs. The union won't budge and active salaried are worried about morale and recruiting.

The info I got was third hand on no-fault reform. I'll see if I can learn more tomorrow

Re: comment that 20 Health Care increase may be related to no fault insurance reform, I don't know if that's the case because current active Ford employees don't have any major changes to their 20 health care plan, the major change of tripling the overall cost looks to be for retiree only. Most trusted?

@11ByADdA-1zkl - YES, you may be absolutely correct. We are in a capitalist economy. Ford is not obligated to provide anything, and retirees were not obligated to work for them for their lifetimes. You are absolutely right there. BUT, long-term employees were/are absolutely crucial in the auto industry because of the expertise. Ford will understand the importance of this, once the newer demographic employees don't stay for more than 2-3 years. For white collar 22-35 year olds, its almost an insult to be working for a company for more than 3 years. (different for union of course because of better bargaining)

I heard that Michigan No Fault Insurance reform has created fear and contributed to the 2020 hc changes. Told that Ford Health Insurance is self-funded, BCBS is just an administrator. Also told that Ford administratored by BCBS is never the primary provider for healthcare needed after auto accidents. If we had "real" BCBS they are the primary provider for car accidents. For us our auto insurance provides coverage. This all changes when the reform takes place in July, 2020. At that time Ford will take on coverage for auto accidents. This has created concern about additional liability costs.

Ford always says that it benchmarks other companies for pay/benefits, right? I wonder how GM and FCA compare with their retiree benefits?

The Ford changes are not good, but in theory they are not obligated to provide anything for retirees, so it is still better than nothing.

Your paper more than likely does say they will provide HC for you until 65. But at what cost? If the exchange is the same or cheaper because they raise it are you going to stay with Ford?

They didn't change open enrollment dates for nothing. Slowly but surely you will be getting HC insurance from someone else.

I was just talking to my wife about how ford has not done right.....and she suggested that writing comments here, while good, does not help young generation, because here its only like preaching the choir.....She suggested we all should write reviews on glassdoor.com as well - the site that youngsters learning about the company visit.....I think she has a point...

They also used to provide some HSA money (1500, I believe), for retirees over 65 on Medicare to go toward Medicare supplement or pr-scrip-ion d–gs. Looks like that is gone as well.

I think my paperwork says Ford will provide insurance until I turn 65. The quality of the options over the next few years is my concern

Know this. Ford has been planning this for years - long before Hackett when they changed open enrollment to coincide with the open enrollment of the Affordable Care Act.

Before long we will all be buying insurance off the exchange both active employees and retirees.

Executives care mainly about meeting objectives. The union is off limits, we are vulnerable.

Bad press would help nip this in the bud IMO

Just wait...under pattern bargaining UAW employees will get at least 11k to approve the new contract...and generous wage increases/annual lump sum bonuses. Guess it has to come out of our pockets. Makes you proud to know what TV they think of us.

Yes this needs to go public. They were pushing people out in 2018 and now, not only the newly retired are getting hit, but anyone retired under the age of 65. Outrageous to do this to former employees.

This story needs to be made public. Not that anything will come of it, just as an FYI awareness.

Perhaps the reporter that was covering the firing lawsuit would be interested??

I hate to say it but if we had some sort of union protection I doubt this would have happened.

It is actually a triple hit, just to be clear. The prior retiree cost would have been $7,000 max out of pocket, now with the $5,160 premium plus up to $14,000 out of pocket before the max, it's over $19,000. Triple . How it was justified that retirees now must come up with an extra twelve thousand a year, is not Ford Family Care in my opinion.

Clearly those considering early retirement prior to 65 when they would be Medicare eligible better have there game faces on and be prepared financially to cover skyrocketing HC costs.

Clearly their agenda is to drastically cut costs for current and future retirees. SRD seemed to go after older employees who had a pension and were approaching a pension milestone. The medical benefit increase for retirees is more evidence of that “agenda”. It goes without saying that the cost of medical benefits is staggering but it seems more reasonable to make the change for future retirees who can plan accordingly than to squeeze retirees who have few options.

The PRP in 18' was a s—er play since the criteria included employees 55+ as most were with the company 20+ years or more the severance package for those in the last 2 waves of Stupid Redesign was exactly the same 9 months pay - only it included a period of HC coverage as well.

Healthcare costs scare the livin' bejesus out of all companies for older employees not just Ford as most are self insured.

You do the math

They pushed the PRP for those eligible...many of us took it not knowing they'd pull this dirty move with the medical. Once again, Ford should be ashamed. I would NOT recommend to any young person to work in such a company. You never know what they will pull next.