WTF is Up with Pfizer Retiree Healthplan Costs?

College = co

Not sure what else spellcheck screwed up in my above post...

 

Your lack of knowledge of your own company boggles my mind. Remember when we used to spend over 70 B in R&D every 10 years? Remember all of the levels of management in sales in 2009 or so? How about all of those old saggy managers we gave early retirement last June? We (like so many other companies) had to cut back, and cut back dramatically. So why do you think we would keep up the costs that you're whining about?These are YOUR fellow old people that did this. Got it, Boomer?

As I heard many arrogant managers used to say back in the day, 'if you don't like it, Walmart is hiring".

 

My arrogant millenial comrade, those expenses back in the day were investing in the company's future and being fat in middle management is a way of taking care of your successfuls or ass kissers because your profits are staggering.

After 2009, Kindle the commie, and his progeny have sliced and diced the employees and their benefits. Yet the euro trash socialists running this company have only enriched themselves in the process.

Glad you're happy with the hypocrisy, but some of us Boomers see the bullshit and disagree. I know nobody can outwardly disagree with a leftard nowadays, but some of us still do. This company was built on Capitalism and now being pillaged by the new left.

 

That is an interesting perspective... Capitalism is what drives the equity markets, and impetus of ongoing pressure to improve eps quarter after quarter to keep the almighty scorecard (stock price) headed up and up. While I am not a lefty I also see how younger people have been poisoned/become jaded for the above reason. The fact is 30 years ago PFE promised essentially free healthcare for life and no one had any issue with that; its capitalism that has eroded that promise for PFE and most other companies. The board and ceo are beholden to shareholders, not employees; that’s capitalism

 

The R&D was bloated; money down the drain, as PFE came up with nothing of any real value But, they kept spending big on sales and marketing, kept failing with their crap drugs, and went shopping for great companies to buy and pillage. That strategy dried up when the drugs went generic, Pfizer went into a corner sucking it’s thumb and the downsizing began.
To your stupid point, the costs of benes could be easily continued....Less people, less cost; it’s all relative like everything else in the world. But, profits remain exorbitant.
So, Skippy, your ignorance boggles my mind. It’s all about the arrogance, greed, incompetence, and ineptitude of our “ leaders”, and the entitled millennials who have no clue.

Got it, Snowflake?

 

Boomers built this great country and entitled little liberal, leftist piss ants like you are tearing it down. Time for you to grow up, Skippy. Your parents can’t support you forever.

 

You should have married a teacher like me. Free medical zero copays for life.

 

And regular spankings when I'm naughty.

 

I did. Not in my State. I triple her pay so we can afford healthcare for life. No reliance on any Marxist systems in my home.

 

Pfizer is the worse company with Benefits.
It started 6--7 yrs ago w former CEO Reed who eliminated the pension plan after 1st saying it would be grandfathered then 1 yr later just axing it while he got a 15mil bonus.
During that time Pfizer eliminated or changed for the worse the healthcare benefits & retirement healthcare. They basically dont have retirement healthcare like most co.
You have a healthcare spending act to pay for co-pays and thats it --- no Rx drug plan or continued medical plan like the previous 50yrs.
Pfizer is NOT a place you want to retire from if looking for good retirement benefits.

 

I seriously don’ know how retiree medical works... it seems like pfe has basically pushed everyone to Medicare at age 65. Is there a plan available thru pfe for people age 65+? If so, is it cost comparable to Medicare? And if Medicare is the way to go can you use what’s in your medical retirement plan towards premiums?

I called Fidelity and asked a rep and she said “what’s Medicare?” Pathetic

 

Which company can you retire from today, Boomer?

 

Why are you still enrolled in Pfizer's Plan? You can go out and get a Part D Plan which has better coverage and no deductibles for hundreds of dollars less per month. and guess what, generics work as well as the brand name Pfizer drug. I learned this two years after I retired and got rid of being ripped off. I have the Part D Plan under United Health Care and Silver Script. Be wise and shop around.

 

79% of Republicans believe its a "God Given" right to own an assault rifle. Not from the Consitution, but from God.

in other news, 54% of Pfizer reps believe a missile hit the Pentagon, not a plan

 

Just 5 more years for you to be miserable, guaranteed!

 

I'm selling more ARs than ever. I love it.

 

Just more co cost savings at employee expense so Pres & CEO can get millions in pay raises

 

No more lifetime medical and Rx drug benefits??

 

If you are staying to lock in retirement medical then you shouldnt waste your time. Pfizer stopped retirement medical benefits 5 yrs ago when they stopped the Pension to save money to put toward R&D per Ian Reed at HQ Townhall that year.
Now you have to pay your own medical & rx plan . The HC act will help pay your monthly premiums but you will still have to pay 1500 a month for a couple on your end.
So the Rule of 72 or 90 whichever you fall under is not really important anymore.
The Pension is frozen & if rates go up the Pension value goes down.
Pfizer is pretty lean now so you can be safe ane cruise next 10yrs into retirement so that is a benefit but dont stay just for retirement benefits as they are all gone

 

Late comments from an Upjohn retiree family victimized by Pfizer's treatment of Upjohn retireesSome of you got it right, but the Socialist, evil democrats crowd are WAY off base.

Yes, originally Pfizer retiree healthcare benefits were self-funded. Employees knew their salaries were 10% less than those of other pharmaceutical corporations. During WW2 US salaries were frozen. Corporate benefits were not. US companies raised worker benefits to attract "the best."

Upjohn created most of the first postwar corto-steroids and grew exponentially. Understanding what they l had created, the original owners (not a public owned Corp. until mid 1950s) had a problem: how to attract the very best scientists to a rather small, dull town in the snowbelt? Answer: great worker benefits, job security, and a low cost of living. It worked and was particularly successful with ww2 vets who used GI bills to become PhD scientists.

I'm the very elderly widow of an Upjohn retiree, who spent 35 years in Finance, much of it related to Benefits. I lived through much of the Upjohn history, including the transition from self-funded, self-managed healthcare to insurance-managed healthcare. I'm going to add that, after taking off 10 years to raise 4 children, I then began my own career, which included a PhD and professional career. I'm used to research, writing, am versed in international economics and have taught in European universities on US State Dept. Programs.

The gentleman who laid out the self funding of retiree healthcare benefits has it straight. By c. 2010-2012, when Pfizer wiped out the supposedly "unbreakable" trust fund for retiree healthcare benefits, his estimate that retiree "contributions" to the trust fund were approximately half a $billion is probably accurate for the 23,500 Upjohn retirees at the time.

That $500,000,000 was the smaller part of the entire fund since Upjohn probably self-funded at least two-thirds of the entire trust fund. Yearly projections were made of future retiree healthcare obligations (not pensions) and the Board approved the corporate contribution for the year.

Sometime in the late 1960s, early 1970s when the decision was made to move away from self-management, the entire fund was put into an "unbreakable" trust fund. My husband was very involved in this decision. Pfizer bought out Upjohn; later argued that the trust fund was their asset. They found a judge who would rule in their favor and thus they seized the trust fund. They erased any retiree healthcare, which had funded the 20% expenses not covered by Medicare. Many retirees were broken financially by uncovered medical costs, unable to decipher pages of 6 point type. Pfizer added to this by not canceling at first free prescriptions for Upjohn patented drugs. Some local financial advisors also didnt realize what Pfizer had done.

Only in America is this possible. Europeans do not understand breaking an Unbreakable Trust fund. The Upjohn retiree who cited contract law as the basis of capitalist democracy is 100% correct. I have spent far too many hours trying to explain this to European friends, because it's impossible.

For those who screech about "socialism." If paying ahead of time for insurance is socialism, as in the case of health insurance for old age, we have lost. Elsewhere, systems of national health insurance rely on high taxes for everyone working to fund their future health insurance needs. You pay much more while young: you know in old age, when you will most need health insurance, you have it. We do not.

The Upjohn Retiree health insurance was funded in the same way. Pfizer has chosen to seize this money, as have other US corporations. Under what formerly was a contract law system, when contracts can be arbitrarily voided, a lot more than just a few elders are defrauded. Ownership rights are destroyed and Democracy is sabotaged