A guy who has a PhD and a law degree from a highly ranked school but a relatively low paying job, has $200k in student loan debt and, at age 66, decides to dump his wife when she’s in poor health, well, he sounds like a real gem.
@sherpa Just have to say I’m loving your kilt and tights. Very dapper. Thanks for sharing. 
Wow, @doschicos, you are so observant! They do look very joyous in #13800!
Haha. I must be a visual person because I look at people’s avatars more than the name when reading a post. So, it always throws me for a loop when someone changes their photo.
My wife, who’s been with Walgreens as a pharmacist and pharmacy manager for the past 25 years, just received a letter from the Walgreens headquarters yesterday that she will no longer qualify to receive the company-subsidized retiree medical coverage when she retires next year. That was one of the benefits that motivated my wife to stay with the company for so long. Up to now, if a Walgreens employee retires after 25 years of continuous employment and reach the age of 55, you can receive the company-subsidized retiree medical coverage. My wife has worked continuously for Walgreens for 25 years and turns 55 next October. Now, the letter states that you have to work for 25 years and reach the age of 64 to receive the benefit.
Ever since Stefano Pessina became CEO of Walgreens in 2015 (I believe), the employees have seen various forms of employment benefits taken away one after another, including employee stocks and bonuses. My wife’s younger sister, who’s also been with Walgreens for 20 years but in a different state, has already received a similar letter as her sister’s last year. At that time, my wife and I pretty much figured that Walgreens is going to plan another benefit cuts to include those who’ve been with Walgreens for 25 years plus, so yesterday’s letter didn’t come as a total surprise.
This discouraging turn of event has changed our retirement plans somewhat. Because of her deteriorating health, she’s definitely retiring next year when she turns 55 or, now with the letter, retire whenever regardless of her age. Most likely she’ll continue to work in a very limited basis even when she retires at age 55, like a substitute pharmacist when a regular pharmacist calls in sick, etc.
Walgreens was kind enough to offer my wife that, should she decide to retire at age 55 (or before age 64), she can still enroll in medical coverage offered through Walgreens except, of course, she’d have to pay the full cost of medical coverage without a penny from the company subsidy. Now, we need to figure out which medical coverage cost more, through Walgreens or elsewhere. We don’t yet know whether going through Walgreens at full cost still cost less than going elsewhere.
My question I’d like to pose here is what do pre-65 age retirees manage their health insurance cost?
Do you have Kaiser near you or can your wife go on your insurance?
I’ve been on my wife’s insurance ever since we decided that I give up my profession to take care of our then toddler sons. We were struggling hard raising our kids while holding onto our professional jobs hundreds of miles isolated from either side of our families.
We had Kaiser last year, and we both loved it. However, we had to change to our current UnitedHealth in order to cover for our younger son’s college in NJ.
Wow—that stinks! It seems very unfair that she had no time nor opportunity to take advantage of the benefit before they snatched it away! We have medical as a retirement benefit from H’s employer when he retired. Employer pays 75% of the premium and we pay the rest; family plan coverage. H was there for 45 years and we are glad he has coverage because few of my jobs gave any benefits.
Is there a pharmacists assn your wife could join and maybe get insurance thru them? Alumni assn?
I’m not sure whether anyone who had already retired under the previous Walgreens’ retiree company-subsidized medical coverage requirements could continue to keep or lose the benefit. Since my wife’s just one year shy and now will not be qualified, we didn’t bother to look into this.
Fortunately for us, we took every opportunity of Walgreens employee stock offerings (some free, some at discount purchase) and retirement benefits since the beginning of her employment with the company 25 years ago, that this latest blow is not as hard. Those golden days of Walgreens employment when the company was known as family operated and loyalty rewarding are over. More than a decade ago, they even gave each full time employee 200 shares of Walgreens stock to celebrate their 4,000th or 5,000th (I forgot) store opening or something like that. Things went downhill ever since the new CEO came in from outside of the Walgreens family. No more free or matching employee stock plans, shrinking bonuses, not even commemorative coffee mugs, yet more demands on pharmacists, including training them to give flu and shingles shots, working clinics, and 12 hour shifts, twice a week, etc. Anyone wants to attend a pharmacy school to become a pharmacist? My wife vehemently oppose it. For one, you can’t get a job due to an oversupply of pharmacists, and two, because of the oversupply of pharmacists, these pharmacy companies feel they have the greater freedom to do whatever with their existing pharmacists. Take away all their benefits. Quit? No problem, there are unemployed pharmacists who are more than willing to take the job.
TiggerDad, that makes me sad, both the pulling away the rug from under your wife’s feet, and the supply of pharmacists. It is a hard route to get that degree.
I’m so sorry your wife is losing her benefits. That happened to many of my friends who were nurses at Kaiser. They had to switch jobs in their late 50s/early 60 to avoid losing their medical coverage in retirement. Fortunately, they were greatly sought after and were able to get new jobs but had hoped to stay with Kaiser their whole careers.
One of my wife’s pharmacist friends, who used to work for Walgreens, switched to Kaiser just a few years ago. She said to my wife that that’s the greatest decision she’s ever made regarding her profession.
Sad to hear, albeit unsurprising in today’s political and corporate environment.
Yes, given our political and corporate environment, we weren’t totally caught off guard since in the back of our heads we have been anticipating it as a distinct possibility. I’m just sadder for those others who haven’t taken Walgreens other employee benefits to their advantage all these years (there are many!!). If they don’t have the means to retire earlier than 65, they’re forced to work until then.
@TiggerDad Sorry to see the direction Walgreens is headed, as that is only individual stock we hold outside of mutual funds. Sigh, should’ve sold long ago. H was a manager for 20 years and there were definitely some glory mid-90’s years with a lot of stock splits and growth.
Comparatively, they were one of the first to offer pretty crappy employee coverage and I’m sad to see they are not honoring what they promised to long-term employees. Good luck to your wife in her retirement journey and I hope you can find a viable healthcare alternative.
I don’t think there is much of an oversupply of pharmacists in my area, but I’m in a rural area in a state that has an older and unhealthy population. Maybe that makes a difference.
“My question I’d like to pose here is what do pre-65 age retirees manage their health insurance cost?”
ACA, while it lasts.
Sorry to hear this has happened. It sucks for sure. Another example of why healthcare shouldn’t be tied to employers, IMO.
And the health care cost environment, where employers in the health care industry are taking flak for their part of how much health care costs, while themselves finding health care for their employees and retirees increasingly expensive to subsidize.
We just got the program plans for 2019 for my Medicare plans. I have express scripts for RX…I don’t really have a choice about this as it’s provided as a “bundle” through the CT Teachers Retirement Board.
I could totally ditch them…but that would be not so smart as the coverage I have is excellent.
But…for 2019…for RX…the out of pocket cost max has increased from $1000 or so to $3500 or so…that’s quite a big donut hole increase. It will affect folks who have more costly RX costs annually.
I feel particularly badly for folks who have been retired for 20 years or more and have these higher RX costs. For many, their actual pension monthly is not particularly high…and this easily can exceed more than a month’s retirement benefit. Most don’t collect SS at all.
They did give good advance notice…so folks can try to plan ahead…but really…this will be challenging fo some folks financially.
Express Scripts is actually pretty well run from our family’s experience. Our BCBS of TX uses them now (after really terrible problems with Prime Therapeutics). We still can get more immediate meds filled locally.
Yes the retirement paradigm is ever changing. When someone lives well beyond 78, and having higher out of pocket health expenses and maybe almost all of nest egg gone and pension money coming in not covering expenses…
But many have not much money at age 65 but also poor health. Some have lived fast and hard.
How do you live happily in retirement? Having ‘enough’ and being grateful; being health enough and being grateful. No family drama if offspring are doing well and are grateful for sacrifices parents have made for them. Maybe they will make a few sacrifices to help their parents in end stages of life. Hope for the future generation.
Sometimes one has unexpected things happen - an accident, cancer, stroke, etc. Sometimes can recover for quality of remaining life.
One can only control what one can see and know within their scope. One doesn’t know what one doesn’t know - including some of the unforeseeable shifts that pull the run out from under a family.
I agree that express scripts runs well.
This out of pocket max increase, however, is a lot for some folks.
And they are being bought by Cigna, aren’t they? Wondering what changes that will bring!