Instead of just telling us how much it sucks, can anyone actually share what the changes are?
Starting in 2012, the only health care option offered by the company will be a HSA/CDHP. All HMO options will be eliminated in 2011, with the remaining PPO's being eliminated the following year. There is, unfortunately, precedence for this within the industry (Delta, from what I understand, rolled this out overnight, as opposed to giving a two-year warning). The company is double the initial seed money for the HSA and offer these monies twice for people who sign up this year, as opposed to it being a one-time deposit.
If you're healthy, a CDHP is a windfall for the employee. Now that I understand the program a little better...as someone who rarely goes to the doctor and requires little to no prescription medication every year...I wish I had been doing it all along. When it's all said and done, it's your money that carries over and you keep it if you leave the company/program, rather than paying money into an HMO you never use and never seeing that money again. That said, I'm not sure that this is the kind of plan I would want to be on if I and/or someone in my family had health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, or cancer. I just haven't personally done the research to support this type of a plan in that kind of situation.
While I do think that if they research it further, most people will find that it's not nearly as bad as everyone has initially knee-jerked, the bigger issue at hand...the way I see it...is the fact that the self-proclaimed "Employer of Choice", is taking away choice.
No matter how you look at it, it's not the best situation for an employee group that, at one time, felt they were the best taken care of in the business.
