Medical Benefits for Life

How is it possible in this day for Alcon to provide lifetime medical benefits to employees? The cost to provide this is excessive and erodes shareholder value. Do all divisions of Novartis get this same benefit after (how many?) years of employment? Can anyone explain this Alcon benefit and how it is earned and provided?

 

That is the reason they are leting go of legacy alconites and replace them with cheaper bodies.

 

10 years, you have to retire here. Right now it's about $650 a month.

 

I thought they took life insurance polices on Alcon employees that are then paid back to Alcon to cover it.

 

The shareholders are paying for these benefits. Time for a corporate policy change. All employee benefits should be the same. Why do Alcon people, regardless of tenure, get lifetime medical benefits while the rest get screwed? Is this even legal?

 

Considering almost 50 percent of those laid off last week were over 40, Novartis is doing everything they can to make sure no one gets them.

 

No surprise. They would find ways to push out hardworking, long time loyal employees who got sick over the years. You get cancer. They fire you. I've seen it so many times. If you think you are safe and secure, that is a sign you are too comfortable and your brain has deteriorated working at this place. Just ask around. Lots of names of good people who were jacked and pushed out the window on the 9th floor after they go sick and counldn;t produce. at the same time you have dicks in leadership who are worthless and lazy bastards, who are harassing their employees and being totally idiots who get a pass from HR. One excellent 30 year employee even one a big lawsuit just before he died. He goes out on medical to get the rest, surgery, and help he needs only to come back and be jacked around. The leaders around him laughed and plotted. He spent his last year of life being very sick and fighting these fucking assholes. Yes, these evil, selfish, small, crybaby leaders are total fucking assholes. still there leading. if you call it that.

 

So if you were promised a post retirement benefit from a company after working there for 30 years and your employer is purchased just before retirement you would be fine with not receiving the benefit?

You're a crybaby and jealous hiding behind the interests of the shareholders. You don't care about shareholder interest, just that someone is getting something that you are not.

This benefit was part of the compensation Alcon employees earned as employees. It was fully funded and set up in a trust and was a condition of the purchase of Alcon. This is the only good thing remaining of what was once a great company.

You are what is wrong with corporate America. Go cry somewhere else.

 

You earned that? You dumb, pathetic, MF. You are part of the old guard that does nothing and took from the cookie jar. You wrecked a company that was lethargic and stale. Even before NVS bought them.

 

Another Millennial.

 

NVS shareholders are NOT paying for Alson retiree medical benefits. Alcon set up an independent trust to administer the program. It was explained that it was a stand-alone entity that could not be raided to pull the money out for other uses. I assume that now only Alcon legacy employees are eligible for this program. NVS employees will get whatever that company has set up. By the way, the monthly premium ($650) is way higher now than it was before NVS bought Alcon. Somehow NVS managed to screw with that, too.

 

If the benefits are funded through profits generated through product sales--yes the shareholders are paying. Typical of Medical companies overcharging the consumer and taxpayer (Medicare/Medicaid funded with taxes) to feed their own excessive programs. If these lifetime medical benefits are acceptable why don't all employees get offered them after 10 years.
In the end, these benefits need to be taxed. Yes taxed.

 

Read what was written above. Alcon set up a stand-alone trust over 20 years ago to fund the retiree medical benefit. Today's profits are not used to support this program. By the way, who do you think built this company? It was the employees in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. They earned this benefit, so quit complaining.

 

What about other divisions? Many have worked for many years and do not get this lifetime benefit. Somehow that must seem fair to some--only some. The money for the so called Trust Fund came from where? Perhaps Profits? Now that is where shareholders are hurt. This is nothing more than deferred income in the form of "health benefits" and should be treated as income and taxed at the normal income tax rates. Where is HR to represent the other staff interests? Hiding on this one I guest.

 

Are you a current alcon employee? If yes, when did you hire in? Your post indicate a lack of knowledge of alcon-nvs merger.

 

20+ years ago there were no shareholders. Alcon was a privately held company owned by a privately held company (Nestle). Get your facts straight. If you worked for 10+ years and retired with Alcon over the age of 55 you were eligible for the retiree medical program, no matter which division you were in. Why is this so difficult to understand? And remember, the medical premium for retirees is over $650 a month, it's not like it's free.