Disabled on Cancer & Novartis is taking away my healthcare

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Up until June 30th when you were on LTD you were able to buy health insurance as part of the active employee pool; for any age up to 65. This would continue until you died or got to be 65 and then you would move to the retirement pool. This was a manageable situation as you are not able to work and earn a living. Your out-of-pocket expenses are quite considerable as you still have many copays to deal with on decreased earning and savings. My meds cost about 15k/month. Surgeries, CAT scans, etc. copays can run into the thousands in even a month. For certain disease entities you may have to do alot of travelling to get to the proper specialists (airline fares, rental cars, taxis, hotels, etc.) or to be part of a clinical trial. Believe me if you get sick you won't have such a cavalier outlook as expressed in the last post. What is essentially happening is that you are now being charged a huge internal (to Novartis) tax on the disability insurance income many of us have carried while working for this company just for a situation like this. I hope the last poster never has to undergo the financial, physical, and economic stress they try to make light of.
 






Anonymous said:
I work in house and totally am NOT in HR.

So yes, if you are "post-employment" because you are on LTD, under 55 with a family, it looks like the burden of continuing your health insurance is probably as much as being on COBRA.

It seems that the idea that someone on LTD is "post-employment" and on the same category as someone that chooses to "retire" is where the moral failure exists on the part of whoever makes up the benefit rules.
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If you were so rightous & indignant you would post the name of the person(s) responsible for this atrocity.
Whether disabled employees win or lose in the legal battle novartis will suffer permanent damage in the court of public opinion as well as with govt regulators.
The long term consequences will heavily out weigh the negligible cost savings aka penny wise & dollar foolish but what do you expect from the sociopaths running branded pharma into the ground.
 






TWEEK AS NEEDED & MAIL THIS OUT TO ALL YOUR DOCTORS & ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES ....NOW NOT LATER

Dear Doctor ________ ,

I want to thank you for the many years I was speak to you on behalf of
Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

As you may know I was unable to continue working due to _______ disease

Typically it can take 1-2 years before a family can qualify for medicare coverage.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem as Novartis offered to subsidize coverage for it's disabled employees for a period of 24 months as you can see from this 2011 benefit sheet.

Unfortunately Novartis has arbitrarily decided to end subsidized coverage for it's own disabled employees. Many who have 1-2 decades or more of service with Novartis.

This was not done for financial neccesity as Basel, Switzerland based Novartis saw Profit Climb 29% on Earnings that climbed to $3.56 billion, or $1.48 a share, from $2.77 billion, or $1.20, a year earlier.

Ironically Novartis mission statement reads "We want to discover, develop and successfully market innovative products to prevent and cure diseases, to ease suffering and to enhance the quality of life".

I want to impress on you the gravity of this decision. Many disabled Novartis employees who loyally worked for many years face the prospect of losing their family home or dying. Leaving a widow & single parent household.
Many of these employees have children with debilitating conditions that will no longer have access to healthcare.

Understand that these benefits were promised in writing for years & that is the reason many of us did not seek employment at other pharmaceutical companies.

This does not only affect disabled Novartis employees. If the reps currently calling on you were to suddenly get cancer or in a life threatening car accident suffering even paralysis , Novartis will literally throw them to the wolves financially.

In light of this I am asking that you re-consider supporting any Novartis products unless they change this callous decision that reveals a company less than interested in healthcare & quality of life for patients Vs. profit & bottom line at all costs.

Here is a website where you can get more info , see Novartis executive compensation , FDA rulings & more.
There will be a trust set up so these critically ill disabled employees do not lose their home can continue receiving life saving treatments & medications

Thank You

Sincerely ,

______________
 






If you want to blame someone just look around this board at all the people who aren't doing their job, even though they're perfectly able. Instead they go out on STD and LTD for all sorts of bogus reasons. I'm sorry to hear about you plight but you have to understand for every legitiment person on disability there are 5 orders milking the system.
 






Anonymous said:
If you want to blame someone just look around this board at all the people who aren't doing their job, even though they're perfectly able. Instead they go out on STD and LTD for all sorts of bogus reasons. I'm sorry to hear about you plight but you have to understand for every legitiment person on disability there are 5 orders milking the system.
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And I wonder why so many are wanting to take disability. Could it be the way this company has and is treating the employees? It is obvious that they don't care about anyone. How about the 12 hour notice that everyone needed to stand by their phones to see your fate with this company. Why hide the fact that there will be layoffs? They know who is next so why not just say so? What goes around comes around and payback is hell.
 






Anonymous said:
If you want to blame someone just look around this board at all the people who aren't doing their job, even though they're perfectly able. Instead they go out on STD and LTD for all sorts of bogus reasons. I'm sorry to hear about you plight but you have to understand for every legitiment person on disability there are 5 orders milking the system.
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How the fuck can you make such an assinine assumption ?
Perhaps for everyone legitamitely out on disability Novartis has a
hard on because they have to pay ?

I guess doctors diagnosis are only valid if they treat PRA right asswipe ?

Maybe you should direct your venom to the executives that MILK up to 27 million a year for their bank accounts or meetings in venice or not one but 3 100K tekturna choppers.

In closing I hope to god you , your parents & kids get cancer or some other fatal disease.

Fuckin POS
 






A website to expose this travesty & all the people responsible for this decision , in particular the ex payless shoe lady , will be up & running soon. It will offer advise to both disabled employees as well as information for physicians , especially Novartis speakers & will be functional soon.

It will also highlight every lawsuit that was litigated against Novartis, FDA rulings , warning letters etc...

It will be advertised any site that tends to lend a sympathic ear such as the huffington post , msnbc etc...

It will offer alternatives for EVERY Novartis product both branded & generic.

Mass emails will go out weekly to very senate & congressional representative in the USA.

Stay tuned
 






So because Novartis offered better benefits in this area compared to other companies for YEARS and are now facing, like every company with US employees, huge, additional costs due to healthcare changes, so they adjusted and are no longer offering this coverage, they are evil? I've worked with many other pharmaceutical companies and almost none offer retiree or post-LTD benefits. If you are not an employee, you are off the payroll plain and simple. Novartis carried this for far longer than most.

Get a life people. A company is not a socialistic institution meant to take care of you for life. While you are employed? Sure, it is part of your pay. After you no longer work there, for any reason, they do not owe you anything. The entitlement mentality is stunning. BTW, my spouse has a chronic, disabling medical condition. I don't expect Novartis to pay for him for life.
 






Anonymous said:
So because Novartis offered better benefits in this area compared to other companies for YEARS and are now facing.
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Better according to who ?
The shoe lady ?
yeah you're a real fuckn hero saving the balance of 24 months LTD health care
subsidy .
Guess that's why you worked at Pay-Less ? right ?
Funny how some doosh that's about 55 decides the cutoff is 55
If the shoe fits
PS- GFYAD
 






If this is true the disability insurance should be made to adjust for this. That is, if you are either in the 50% or 67% insurance group and you end up on LTD; because of the exorbitant health care premiums you will be forced to pay your actual disability coverage will now be lowered by 20 to 40%. As your health insurance also will become after-tax, your disability income will become more like 20% (50% group) or 37% (67% group). These are ball park numbers but you should get the net effect to our disability insurance for what it is meant to do. This needs to be addressed otherwise the safety net we are paying for each month has become greatly compromised. At a bare minimum the interconnection between our disability policies and these new standards should be brought to the attention of the NJ insurance commissioner. I think also because we are such a large company there are ERISA modifications statutes that may come into play here.
 






Anonymous said:
If this is true the disability insurance should be made to adjust for this. That is, if you are either in the 50% or 67% insurance group and you end up on LTD; because of the exorbitant health care premiums you will be forced to pay your actual disability coverage will now be lowered by 20 to 40%. As your health insurance also will become after-tax, your disability income will become more like 20% (50% group) or 37% (67% group). These are ball park numbers but you should get the net effect to our disability insurance for what it is meant to do. This needs to be addressed otherwise the safety net we are paying for each month has become greatly compromised. At a bare minimum the interconnection between our disability policies and these new standards should be brought to the attention of the NJ insurance commissioner. I think also because we are such a large company there are ERISA modifications statutes that may come into play here.
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HIPAA also created ERISA Section 702, which provides that a group health plan or health
insurance issuer may not base coverage eligibility rules on certain health-related factors, such as
medical history or disability.259 In addition, a health plan may not require an individual to pay a
higher premium or contribution than another “similarly situated” participant, based on these
health-related factors
 






Anonymous said:
HIPAA also created ERISA Section 702, which provides that a group health plan or health
insurance issuer may not base coverage eligibility rules on certain health-related factors, such as
medical history or disability.259 In addition, a health plan may not require an individual to pay a
higher premium or contribution than another “similarly situated” participant, based on these
health-related factors
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I wonder if the consultants that Novartis hired to come up with this PR fiasco-waiting-to-happen ever considered the genesis of a class-action here?
 






























Anonymous said:
So because Novartis offered better benefits in this area compared to other companies for YEARS and are now facing, like every company with US employees, huge, additional costs due to healthcare changes, so they adjusted and are no longer offering this coverage, they are evil? I've worked with many other pharmaceutical companies and almost none offer retiree or post-LTD benefits. If you are not an employee, you are off the payroll plain and simple. Novartis carried this for far longer than most.

Get a life people. A company is not a socialistic institution meant to take care of you for life. While you are employed? Sure, it is part of your pay. After you no longer work there, for any reason, they do not owe you anything. The entitlement mentality is stunning. BTW, my spouse has a chronic, disabling medical condition. I don't expect Novartis to pay for him for life.
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You insentitive douche bag! Just because you are feeling like its OUR fault that WE got a disease that has TOTALLY disabled us you don't have any moral compassion for us.

Don't forget moron we are on a limited income and not by our choice. WE need healthcare at a reasonable cost due to no increases in LTD payments even though inflation is killing us at the gas pump, grocery store, etc. We all have copays for drugs not only $10.00 but sometimes $90.00 and copays for Drs along with 10% copays for hospitals and tests.

My medical costs out of pocket runs around $800/mo so don't tell me I'm not worth it. I due pay the $221.00/mo for coverage like you but don't make the money u do because u are employed and getting a full salary.

So shove it up your ass and some day when you get screwed on health ins. u will be the first one bitching.

Karma is a bitch and so are u!
 












Anonymous said:
The Wall Street Journal is reaching out to people on this story. If affected by this; e-mail
Tom McGinty (Investigative Reporter at WSJ)

tom.mcginty@wsj.com

He wants to hear your story.
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If this situation applies to you, please reach out to this guy and share your story so we ca expose this. I personally have not experienced this, but have had cancer during my Novartis career and the amount of out of pocket expenses was crazy, even though I had full coverage! At one point in time I owed over 15K to the hospital for out of pocket expenses as some of my meds/treatments were being denied as "experimental". This was crazy, as I was undergoing basic treatments and considered gold standard therapy for cancer.

I thankfully was able to come back to work before going out on LTD, however, I cringe to think that this easily could apply to me if I were to have a relapse.
 






I was injured on the job and am out on long term disability. They also reduce the LTD payout by the Social Security Disability payout. Don't make the mistake that I did, sign up for the additional 17% coverage.
 






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