Democrats and many voters are justifiably outraged at the Romney/Ryan plan for Medicare.
If the GOP plan were to take effect it is projected that Medicare will go broke by 2016.
But where is the outrage when Illinois’ Democrats are proposing a similar assault on the health insurance of Illinois’ retired state employees?
Selective outrage? Election year opportunism? A double standard?
Yes. Yes. And you betcha.
Take Senate Bill 1313 which has already been signed by the Democratic Illinois Governor and impacts thousands of retired state employees who have had state subsidized health care. That promised subsidy is gone. Four state employee unions have now gone to court claiming that the law violates the language of the Illinois constitution which prohibits any action that would diminish or impair current state employee pensions.
While no action was taken during Friday’s General Assembly session, watch out for the post-election session.
The Democrats’ plan for the Fall is to push for a forced choice between a yearly 3% cost of living adjustment or access to TRIP, the Teacher Retirement Insurance Program.
They believe that a coercive forced choice will survive a legal challenge to the constitutional prohibition against diminished or impaired retirement benefits. Plus the Democrats are willing to spend plenty to pursue that defense against an inevitable legal challenge.
And what if they win?
What will happen to retirees who choose to stay in TRIP and give up their present cost of living adjustment because that is their only insurance option? Nobody can tell you what TRIP will look like, what it will cost or what it will cover.
As many as 5,000 TRS members, those who retired before April 1st of 1986, are prohibited from ever receiving any Medicare.
Other retirees will be faced with the choice of remaining in the TRIP system, as unclear as it is as to what that system may look like in the coming years, or losing their current COLA. It is estimated that as many as 40% of current TRIP members would leave.
An estimated 60% would stay in TRIP for fear of the exorbitant costs of shopping for health insurance in the open market.
While this might reduce the liability of TRIP somewhat, those remaining would be high needs members. The grouping of high needs members in a single insurance program has already caused active teachers to contribute nearly 1% of their salaries to keep TRIP solvent. Reducing the pool further will only make matters worse.
This is a disaster for the thousands of state retirees that makes the Romney/Ryan proposals seem tame in comparison.
So tell me. Why all the outrage at the GOP plan?
Yet only silence on the Quinn/Madigan/Cullerton plan?
Fred Klonsky 