Investigators: Employee Benefits, early retireee medical.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/investigative/investigators-employee-benefits-may-23-2011?CMP=201105_emailshare

MY POSTED COMMENT BELOW:
The video starts with "families" but the under $35 quoted for Hennepin County is for INDIVIDUAL coverage. (this is the same amount active employees with INDIVIDUAL coverage pay). At Hennepin County the early retirement insurance is close to $500 with a spouse and substantially more when dependent children are also included. .........

Hennepin County requires 20 years of service and, as the video stated, it no longer applies to new hires. Beyond the fact that this was part of the employment contract, it is a big part of the reason that a lot of people take early retirement. In my case, I had 33 years with Hennepin County when I took early retirement under "Rule of 90". In my final job at central printing the work was decreasing rapidly. In the last three years I heard that including me, four have retired and there is only one new low pay new hire.

I heard that my previous work related to an onsite mainframe computer is going away. I have many office skills and with my seniority I could have "bumped" a lot of people. When I took retirement three and a half years ago State of Minnesota early retirees choosing INDIVIDUAL coverage had to pay $400 per month. If I had that extra cost I could not have affored to retire. In relative terms it would have cost Hennepin County more to keep me on the active payroll. Concievably the courts could order Hennepin County to rehireearly retirees if they ammended the early retiree health care benifits. That would not be "pretty". It's hard to tell how many people who chose early retirement facedd some infirmaty and would possibly face disability if they stayed on until age 65. I forfieted more
than 400 hours of sick leave when I left but my knees were getting pretty bad. I believe that disability costs are covered by the employer while my reduced pension is covered by PERA. Also, for every year worked beyond "Rule of 90" my pension amount would increase5%.

As the old saying goes: "Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it".