Check your health care statements

EVERY year the first prescriptions that BJ Guild retirees pick up seem to be fouled up. The problem, as I see it, is that KR keeps going to the vendor that offers the lowest price (understandable), which usually means that data in one vendor's computer has to be dumped into the new vendor's computer. Often, the wrong code number is keystroked in, which is understandable. One year in January the computer said that I was not eligible but that my wife Monia was. Phone calls usually straighten it out.

But this year, because of Tony Ridder's threat to change premiums, deductibles and health care coverage in general, I think we're all a little nervous when these things happen. I suggest that all Guild retirees keep close track of both prescription and general health care payments by KR or its vendors, even more than usual, so that, if there's any change in what you've been getting, you can notify KR at the phone number Harry gave in his "panic" posting, and I also suggest that you notify Mark Davis, Executive Secretary of the Northeast Ohio Guild chapter in Cleveland (Akron is part of that group now), who has been tracking and challenging KR's attempts to change coverage for "grandfathered in" (those who retired in 1996 or earlier) Guild retirees, at

mrd47@sbcglobal.net

or call the Northeast Ohio Guild chapter office at
216-621-6792
where you can ask for Mark Davis or Rollie Dreussi, another person I have been dealing with over various KR and UHC disagreements.

The more information that the Guild office in Cleveland gets, the better chance we all have that mistakes (or attempts to slip something past us) can be corrected for all of us. It's important that ALL Guild retirees check their health care coverage in 2005, and that we challenge any changes which are detrimental to us.

If KR is permitted to make changes, it has the same effect as reducing our pension check because it lowers the money we have available for our other expenses.

It also may be necessary to call attention to Tony Ridder's pillaging of our pensions by dumping more health care costs onto us, whether it's through higher deductibles, higher premiums (we "grandfathered in" types pay no premiums, at least through 2004) or lower payments than previously made for the same health care billings. Whether this is privately, through the Northeast Ohio Guild chapter, or publicly, perhaps through the Guild Reporter or other media, I'll leave it up to Guild retirees to determine.

This is every bit as important a battle as all the skirmishes we had with management, often with Harry leading the charge, during Guild negotiations while we still were employed by the BJ. If we roll over and play dead, Tony Ridder will continue to pay for his yachts at our expense. KR seems to be in the mode of throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks. At our expense, of course. And then it becomes "past practice."