HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO TELL ABOUT LOSING YOUR BJ INSURANCE. SPEAK UP!

Your chance to state your case CALMLY

Mycheala Holley of Senator Sherrod Brown’s Cleveland office met with Rick O’Connor, CEO of Black Press, who has agreed to work with Senator Brown to identify the total number and names of the retirees who have lost their healthcare benefits.

So, it’s up to EVERY Beacon Journal retiree to contact Senator Brown’s Cleveland office and inform them of your lost healthcare benefits. Keep it civil, keep it rational and keep it accurate. Ranting won’t help. The facts are horrifying enough to stand on their own.

Instead of complaining to each other, let’s organize our thoughts and join together and flood Senator Brown’s office with letters (more effective, I think) and phone calls (but only if you can avoid shouting).

Maybe seeing what I wrote to Senator Brown’s office will help you craft your calm but factually frightening letter:

 

Mycheala Holley

Regional Representative

Office of U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown

801 W. Superior Ave., Suite 1400

Cleveland, Ohio 44113

Ph: 216-385-4464

Fx: 216-522-2239

 

Ms. Holley:

I retired in 1996 with a retirement letter that guaranteed I would keep my same medical, supplemental and prescription coverage that was in effect on my retirement day. I gave up $37,000 in reduced Social Security checks and Beacon Journal pension to retire early in 1996 and avoid the cutbacks that I expected to hit future BJ retirees but Canadian big business legal dodgeball has harmed my financial situation severely in 2021.

The Beacon Journal dropped the 20% supplemental medical co-pay for doctors and hospitals in 2004, leaving only the 80% paid by Medicare and adding the 20% to my out-of-pocket costs.

Black Press dropped the $2 co-pay for 30-day prescriptions and $6 for 90-day prescriptions in 2007 for Beacon Journal Guild (newsroom) employees.

Black Press Group LTD bailing out of medical insurance and costs and our pensions, even though its income is nearly $300 million a year, increased my prescription costs ALONE from $160 a year to $2,476.19 for 2020. Puget Sound, Black Press’ subsidiary, dumped Beacon Journal pensions on the Federal Guaranteed Pension, so we will continue to get 100% of our pension because we don’t come close to the $5,000 monthly maximum to have the pension reduced below 100%.

During the years from Federal Judge David Dowd’s 2012 ruling invalidating reneging on printers and newsroom retirees’ retirement-day letters and their guarantees till the Canadian’s bankruptcy filing I saved $60,000 over what it would have cost me personally for my prescriptions, doctors, hospitals and premiums.

Now I am saddled with $1,057.20 a year in once-Beacon Journal-paid premiums for my AARP United Health Care prescription coverage that has far more out-of-pocket expenses than the $2 co-pay I had on retirement day, $2,332.20 a year in premiums for the AARP United Health Care Supplemental plan that the Beacon Journal paid the entire premiums for and the Medicare Part B premium of $1,735.20 a year. That’s $5,124.60 a year for the 3 medical premiums. Plus I gave up $37,000 in Social Security and Beacon Journal pension to retire early and avoid the cutbacks that were about to hit current employees in 1996 but 3 decades later returned to slash my financial situation severely.

And my prescription co-pay that I am responsible for went from $160 in the previous year to $2,476.19 for 2020 alone!

On a Beacon Journal pension that is $1,922.60 a month ($44.71 for each of the 43 years of my journalism career) or about one-fourth my BJ pension each year for my premiums alone. The premiums and now-imposed out-of-pocket medical costs mean that about HALF by Beacon Journal pension each year is gone before I can buy food, clothes, gas or go to a restaurant.

While David Black gets off scot-free with his $300 million revenue a year with the help of fancy lawyers and high-priced accountants.

Income inequality and dodging taxes and pensions and medical costs just widen the gap between people on yachts and people too poor to afford a leaky rowboat.

Anything you can do to improve this situation, not just for me but for the 45 printers and 5 Guild retirees who won the lawsuit only to lose the war to Canadian big business responsibility-dodging and others even worse off because they didn’t benefit from Judge Dowd’s lawsuit ruling.

Thank you for your time and anything you can do to help the Beacon Journal retirees, including many who are even worse off than I am. We gave our working lives to prop up our country’s economy and feel like we’re being kicked in the head by corporations ranking in millions of dollars a year.

 

John Olesky, Jr.

217 N Thomas Road

Tallmadge, OH 44278-1776

(330) 388-4466