By Al Gladyck, Clinton Township, MI
United Auto Worker VEBAs are a symptom of the disease
The disease is the spreading lack of healthcare for tens of millions of people in this country. The Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) is a symptom of this disease.
On November 18, 2012 Crain’s Detroit Business reported that the United Auto Workers (UAW) VEBAs were $33 billion underfunded at the end of 2011. That means that the funds that were supposed to last until the year 2090 (that is until every one of the 852,000 UAW VEBA beneficiaries is dead) will now only last until the year 2022. In the year 2023, 734,000 Ford, GM and Chrysler UAW retirees and spouses will be left out in the cold as this trend continues.
Since January 1, 2013, changes to the VEBA coverage includes increased co-pays, deductibles and for those beneficiaries eligible for Medicare automatic enrollment in Medicare Part D in an attempt to cut the cost of healthcare insurance that the VEBA provides.
This downward trend is based on the VEBAs being tied to the health of the auto companies and their stocks because that is the way both the companies and government structured the funding.
The UAW VEBA mess is getting worse instead of better, and no one should be surprised. After all the union movement, including the UAW, has had nothing but horrible experiences with VEBAs.
In 2006, the UAW whole-heartedly supported Medicare For All (HR 676), but by 2010 the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed by President Obama and the convention that year all but deserted HR 676 in favor of ACA. Well the VEBA is the private version of ACA, trapped by increasing costs of medical insurance companies controlling access to healthcare and actual healthcare.
So let’s refresh ourselves, Medicare For All (HR 676) is:
Everybody In, Nobody Out—Gives every resident of the United States and the U.S. Territories access to all medically necessary health care services, including vision and dental, with no copays or deductibles regardless of employment, income or health status.
Non-Profit Health Care—Converts all healthcare providers to a not-for-profit service where illness is no longer a source of wealth for a few.
Single Payer—Pays for that expanded coverage by maintaining the present level of federal and state funding for Health Care as well as turning the premiums now paid to private medical insurance companies into Medicare For All premiums.
