GE slashes workers’ health benefits

THIS YEAR, General Electric (GE) dropped a bombshell on its non-union employees--their responsibility for health care expenses is going to go up dramatically starting January 1, 2010.

Currently, salaried GE employees and their covered family members, including same-sex partners, have a traditional co-pay/deductible/co-insurance health care plan. However, next year the co-pays go away, and the plans pay nothing until the deductible is reached. After that, it's 20 percent until the out-of-pocket maximum is satisfied. That maximum also is being raised for most workers.

Some of the worst affected by this change are those expecting to have a child next year. A pregnancy under the current plan is either 20 percent (up to the maximum) or a $15 co-pay for every office visit with the "preferred" option. In 2010, a pregnancy will cost at least $4,225, and up to $7325, for an employee making $50,000 to $74,999.

Combine that with annual payroll contributions, and an employee paying for a pregnancy can expect to spend 10-15 percent of their salary for health care.

GE employs more than 320,000 people worldwide, though many are represented by a union (and their benefits are protected). This year, salaried employees (i.e. those not in a union) did not receive their annual pay raises either.

2006 marked the first year that GE's global employees out-numbered U.S. employees, so these are just the latest efforts for the multi-billion dollar conglomerate to trim costs to satiate its investors. GE's anti-worker attitude is turning GE from one of the best places for people to find a career into a mediocre place to work.

GE's workers are getting a taste of what "exempt employee" really means--no union, no leverage.
Craig Johnson, Cincinnati