Maryland State employees have traditionally been paid significantly less than their counterparts in the federal government and private industry. My husband started working for the State in 1974 at $8000 a year. He did get raises, but he was still on the low end of salaries of most college graduates.
But a redeeming thing about working for the state was the health insurance entitlement; it was reassuring to know we had that safety net during his employment and when he retired.
My husband took night classes in accounting and became a Certified Public Accountant. He built a part-time tax business largely because of his low state salary to help us out financially.
Still, there was the job and health insurance. In our thirties and forties, we didn’t use our health insurance very often since we and our children didn’t get sick often but my husband’s mother was a strong supporter for being a state employee because she retired with excellent health insurance for her and her husband in the late nineties.
With the accounting degree and experience, my husband saw opportunities for a much better salary, but after putting in 15+ years, he was reluctant to give up the years he had earned toward retirement when he would have the health insurance and pension. Security was important to us.
He retired in 2007. Then in May, 2018, he got a letter from the State of Maryland letting us know that, by the way, a law had been passed in 2011 that would take away our prescription drug coverage at the end of 2018 and that we should go onto Medicare Part D at that time. This law had been passed in 2011 because theoretically in 2019, the donut hole would be closed for Medicare Part D and we would no longer need prescription coverage through the State.
They didn’t bother to notify many State employees and retirees including my husband of the future change until May 2018. Panicking, we checked to see what kind of coverage we would have for our prescriptions without the State prescription plan. My husband was on Humira for an autoimmune condition -- $5000+ copay per year. There was no generic.
I use eye drops which have no generic. $2500 a year.
You might have seen some commercials on tv that say you can get drugs like these for as little as $5 or $10 a month. That doesn’t apply if you’re on Medicare. So if you need these drugs for some condition, after you turn 65, you can no longer get them for this low price.
Being on fixed incomes, we weren’t happy at the idea of paying thousands more in copays each year, but if we gave up these medications, it would leave us with painful conditions.
It made us, along with other retirees angry. If we had known that coverage would have been taken away, we would have made different choices when we were younger. My husband could have taken a higher paying job. I could have worked for another two years as a teacher and gotten our health and prescription coverage through my county.
A few disgruntled State retirees brought a lawsuit against the State of Maryland. The lawsuit has been ongoing, and as long as it has continued, our prescription coverage remains the same.
In 2018, the State offered a deal. State retirees wouldn’t get to keep their prescription coverage, but the State would reimburse any expenses over $1500 for an individual and $2000 for a married couple. This wasn’t as bad as having all coverage taken away, but the logistics of how people were going to be reimbursed for money they paid past the $1500/2000 was sure to be a daunting challenge. For many state retirees who had retired on pensions with not a lot in savings, laying out money for prescriptions would be a hardship or impossible.
The State made this deal contingent on the employees being retired by the end of 2018. A lot of employees retired at that time in fear of losing out completely. My cousin, who is an attorney, left working for the state at this time even though she had planned to work another four years. Other employees my husband had worked with retired then because they couldn’t take a chance on losing any kind of prescription protection.
We also know friends who were old enough to retire but didn’t because they didn’t feel they could afford to live on just their pensions and were unlikely to be able to get other jobs that paid for their needs.
Governor Martin O’Malley and the 2011 legislature gets a lot of blame for this situation, but I wouldn’t put the total blame on them. At the time they were under the assumption that by 2019, the Federal Government would have closed the “donut hole” making Medicare Part D coverage good for all retirees as it should be. But the more current legislatures along with Governor Larry Hogan were unwilling to reverse the legislation that took away vested retiree prescription rights. They have been made well aware of the situation because of the many calls and letters from their constituents. We no longer live in Maryland but the letters we sent to our former delegate and to Larry Hogan were basically ignored
This battle has made me more aware of the gaps in prescription coverage under Medicare Part D, not just for State retirees but for all retirees over 65.
Due to a recent court ruling that was unfavorable for the State, the legislature has recently put forth bills in the State House and Senate to help rectify the situation for State Retirees. Here are the proposed bills:
SENATE BILL 578: AN ACT concerning 2 State Prescription Drug Benefits – Retirees
HOUSE BILL 892: AN ACT concerning 2 State Prescription Drug Benefits – Retirees
This seems like a good opportunity for a candidate for Maryland Governor, e.g., Tom Perez to address this issue and take a leadership role to support State of Maryland Retirees. Someone should make him aware about this issue. It might gain him a few votes in November from Maryland State Retirees.