Corporate will soon announce the latest round of changes to employee medical coverage, including any increases in what employees pay, when the annual open enrollment period starts.
But this year could bring even bigger changes, depending on the results of an employee benefits survey launched in early August. At the time, human resources chief Roxanne Horning said she wanted feedback on Gannett's "total rewards" program, which included "pay, benefits, learning and development, and work/life programs."
The survey results would be shared with employees, she said. Horning didn't give a timetable, although she suggested it could be within 90 days, which would mean sometime in mid-November.
Conventional wisdom says this exercise could result in a more flexible array of benefits, but at a higher cost to employees -- especially in medical coverage, a cost of business that shows little sign of moderating.
Yours truly shares your pain. When I took a buyout from USA Today in January 2008, my company-subsidized medical cost me $150 a month.
Then I went on COBRA, with no subsidy, and it jumped to nearly $400. After COBRA ran out: $621. A year ago: $710. And just this week: $793, starting Jan. 1. (By the way, this is the same provider, Kaiser Permanente, for substantially the same coverage just for myself.)
So, without the company subsidy as a cushion, my monthly premium has doubled in just three years. And there's no end in sight.
The survey results would be shared with employees, she said. Horning didn't give a timetable, although she suggested it could be within 90 days, which would mean sometime in mid-November.
Conventional wisdom says this exercise could result in a more flexible array of benefits, but at a higher cost to employees -- especially in medical coverage, a cost of business that shows little sign of moderating.
Yours truly shares your pain. When I took a buyout from USA Today in January 2008, my company-subsidized medical cost me $150 a month.
Then I went on COBRA, with no subsidy, and it jumped to nearly $400. After COBRA ran out: $621. A year ago: $710. And just this week: $793, starting Jan. 1. (By the way, this is the same provider, Kaiser Permanente, for substantially the same coverage just for myself.)
So, without the company subsidy as a cushion, my monthly premium has doubled in just three years. And there's no end in sight.
We had wondered when enrollment for the next year would be.
ReplyDeleteJust came out in email - cost is same for employees - just a different company - United Health Care (except for a couple of sites - that stay on Athhem)
ReplyDeleteWhatever their increase is, GCI employees should keep their mouths shut and be grateful they're on a payroll.
ReplyDeleteCorrection, 4:37. The cost to employees is going up at some sites, including mine, according to my email.
ReplyDelete@4:42 - only took three posts to play the "be grateful you have a job" card. If this is the kind of publicity campaign on this blog GCI is paying for, then they are wasting their money.
ReplyDeleteMy email said that costs weren't rising, I would not be surprised if different sites got different notes.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, am very surprised and grateful that rates are not going up. I don't know what other changes are in store but if I do still have a job next year, not paying more for health insurance will be a big plus to my family.
Once again, we get a piece from corporate that has used pictures with iStockphoto watermarks on them.
ReplyDeleteThis means they are stolen intellectual property.
Granted, the usual art we see come out of GIADC's art service is crap - but there is no excuse for Gannett to just swipe someone else's work without payment.
For goodness sakes, if you're going to steal, swipe an image off of Google WITHOUT the watermark.
5:02 you really had to stretch to find a negative here. It's sad really.
ReplyDeleteMy email also states no increase in cost, but specialist visits are going up and generic drugs must be tried before name brand will be covered.
ReplyDeleteI don't take Gannett insurance since I don't think I should be penalized for being married, our family is covered on my wife's policy which is about half the cost with better coverage anyway.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete6:06 how specifically is it better and what is your cost for fily coverage?
ReplyDeleteMy costs didn't go up, the specialist cost only goes up if they aren't network certified and the generic thing happens at most companies today. Nope, I am one happy camper!
ReplyDelete4:47, welcome to the real world of what it's like for the unemployed: there are hundreds of former GCI people in similar situations to Jim's, past COBRA coverage, who are paying hundreds of dollars a month for private health insurance.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet people wonder why workers, and even more so the under or unemployed cannot afford health ins.
ReplyDeleteBe grateful . . .I left Gannett and am now self employed. Premium for me and one college age child: 1700 dollars for medical only -- no vision, no dental. And they say we don't need healthcare reform.
ReplyDeleteIf the horde here is just now figuring out the cost of these benefits (after previously bitching about COBRA), then we see, once again, that posters at Gannett Blog do not understand benefits.
ReplyDeleteThe cobra cryer could try marcher with the 99 % ers and he would at least feel a release.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if you backed the 99% MOVEMENT jim I think you have the same aspect of justice as the dedicated marchers in every city!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteNotice the jargon. Basic employee benefits are now called part of a Total Rewards program. In other words, they are a goodie for the deserving, not an obligation for any decent employer to provide to all employees.
ReplyDelete10:00. We pay $116 per pay for the family including dental/vision, there is no deductible and everything is covered at 90%. Gannett coverage was over $200 per pay with a deductible of either $500 or $1000, I don't remember. My wife's company does not surcharge for marriage.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I ami pleasantly surprised overall portion of h.care is not going up next year. This company may not be doing right by it's employees most of the time. But this is a small victory
ReplyDelete.the cynical me says a week of furlough will cover it, though.
4:12 even if the furlough occurs it could have happened WITH a medical premium increase. Enjoy the positive folks.
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. No increase in revenue but they are going to eat an 8 percent hit in costs for our health benefit? Come on folks, use your noodle. They are going to cut somewhere else. That was the point of the "TOTAL REWARDS" survey. Let's see what comes next before we rejoice this health care "victory." Besides, our health care is not that great to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI am not complaining yet. Very happy that they listened and are not charging us anymore. I can't pay my bills now working multiple jobs besides Gannett. Please just let me enjoy the good and when the bad comes I'll deal with it then.
ReplyDeleteThank you for not increasing our benefit costs!
I added up my COBRA insurance cost so far. Turns out if I had opted out, it would have been CHEAPER -- something with the laid-off appreciate -- to not have any insurance.
ReplyDeleteExample: I'm in great health since leaving the incredible stress of a wholly dysfunctional company. Some bloodwork, that's all: once every three months, $300 without insurance.
With COBRA? Four hundred and twenty-five dollars every one of those three months, my bill with that "benefit?" Just $60. Yeh, thanks. Let me bend over some more while the total take for the health care industry adds up to $1300, when it can be least afforded, against $300 uninsured.
Of course, the whole point of insurance is a "just in case" scenario. And America can't handle the highly successful models of nonprofit medicine in every other industrialized economy on Earth (where, by the way, health is seen as right, not a privilege of profit for private corporations).
So it would be utterly irresponsible to drop this circus of exploitation, lest some major calamity visits -- a prospect which was quite toeing the Gannett line under too many unqualified types in positions of authority.
Yet since my circumstance is now wonderfully moot even with regard to a severely anemic budget -- thanks in no insignificant part to COBRA's monthly tithe for Anthem, Aetna, et. al., as I upgrade my skills for an entirely different career -- such "just in case" scenarios seem almost anachronistic when one is free of toxic workplace which handily characterized the latter.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you being switched to UHC, check their website NOW and make sure your current providers take it. We ran into the scenario at my former site where they changed us, only to find out the major referral hospital in the state stopped accepting their insurance. A couple of years later, we were switched back to our previous carrier. This was one case where corporate did listen to us.
ReplyDelete