Should I retire 3 years early to get health insurance?

[Anonymous]

It is possible this spin off will happen earlier than expected. I wonder if we will get a grace period to retire or if we will wake up one morning and find out we are newco employees and screwed out of Abbott retirement benefits?

 

[Anonymous]

It is possible this spin off will happen earlier than expected. I wonder if we will get a grace period to retire or if we will wake up one morning and find out we are newco employees and screwed out of Abbott retirement benefits?

Would highly recommend that you not take any unneccessary chances. As soon as you are eligible to retire, take it. Even if it is early in 2012. Wouldn't trust these guys to give any advance notice.

 

[Anonymous]

I have earned over 15 years and will be over 50 as well when this goes down. I am currently seeking , while continuing to work for abbott, a new career. Will it be a challenge, Yes. However; by retiring I am sure to get what is waiting. This gives us older folks a nice window of 8-10 months to find out what to do with the next 10 years or so and honestly, the way things are run these days in pharma I am glad to exit on my terms. Would I have liked to work to 56 and 20 plus years, well, Yes. But this deal is exactly as it appears. Split the company? Why? Spinning off old pharma divsiion makes sense for just a few reasons and they are totally bottom line driven, which is the objective. I understand corps are in business to earn money and satisfy shareholders, not to give us jobs but that does not mean you should sit on your duff and wait for it to hit....Good Luck, all in all, abbott has been good to me, not many regrets....Peace

 

[Anonymous]

I have earned the milestone of health insurance and life insurance for life. I have been counting on that for when I retire in 5 years. I'm wondering if I should retire right before the split happens and walk away with those benefits I've earned?????? The reps from Hospira got screwed. HR e-mail says new company will do as they wish with benefits.

Of course you should. Health insurance for life is a very rare thing. Take it. You are older so you'll likely be laid off anyway so go for what you've got in hand. You have a lot more flexibility in future employment if you don't need health insurance coverage. You could consider commission only jobs.

 

[Anonymous]

Would highly recommend that you not take any unneccessary chances. As soon as you are eligible to retire, take it. Even if it is early in 2012. Wouldn't trust these guys to give any advance notice.

I think that because they have to go through regulatory and keep the shareholders informed, an exact date will be made public.

 

[Anonymous]

I have earned over 15 years and will be over 50 as well when this goes down. I am currently seeking , while continuing to work for abbott, a new career. Will it be a challenge, Yes. However; by retiring I am sure to get what is waiting. This gives us older folks a nice window of 8-10 months to find out what to do with the next 10 years or so and honestly, the way things are run these days in pharma I am glad to exit on my terms. Would I have liked to work to 56 and 20 plus years, well, Yes. But this deal is exactly as it appears. Split the company? Why? Spinning off old pharma divsiion makes sense for just a few reasons and they are totally bottom line driven, which is the objective. I understand corps are in business to earn money and satisfy shareholders, not to give us jobs but that does not mean you should sit on your duff and wait for it to hit....Good Luck, all in all, abbott has been good to me, not many regrets....Peace

I like what you said. It shows brains and forward thinking. Please post your resume here so I may contact you directly.

 

[Anonymous]

I have earned over 15 years and will be over 50 as well when this goes down. I am currently seeking , while continuing to work for abbott, a new career. Will it be a challenge, Yes. However; by retiring I am sure to get what is waiting. This gives us older folks a nice window of 8-10 months to find out what to do with the next 10 years or so and honestly, the way things are run these days in pharma I am glad to exit on my terms. Would I have liked to work to 56 and 20 plus years, well, Yes. But this deal is exactly as it appears. Split the company? Why? Spinning off old pharma divsiion makes sense for just a few reasons and they are totally bottom line driven, which is the objective. I understand corps are in business to earn money and satisfy shareholders, not to give us jobs but that does not mean you should sit on your duff and wait for it to hit....Good Luck, all in all, abbott has been good to me, not many regrets....Peace

Me too. I understand why these things are happening, and for the first time, I'm grateful for my age. The people who are 38 to 50 are going to have a more difficult decision to make. They are in between. We are at the end.......of pharma that is. Glad to get out. It sucks now.

 

[Anonymous]

If you do decide to retire early, you should consider checking out a website where you can answer a few basic questions and get a rate quote comparison among major life insurance companies. I work for this company and we help a lot of people. http://bit.ly/w28WW2

 

[Anonymous]

There's no value(except for the agent) in Whole Life. If they want to sell you a Whole Life policy, punch them in the mouth.

 

[Anonymous]

Just got a letter from Abbott addressed to US Retirees. Says they aren't expecting any changes to retiree medical benefits at this time, but after the split each company can do as they wish. So does this mean after the split the company I retired from no longer exists?

 

[Anonymous]

Just got a letter from Abbott addressed to US Retirees. Says they aren't expecting any changes to retiree medical benefits at this time, but after the split each company can do as they wish. So does this mean after the split the company I retired from no longer exists?

No it still exists. They can just change your retirement benefits when they want to.
Good luck

 

[Anonymous]

Just got a letter from Abbott addressed to US Retirees. Says they aren't expecting any changes to retiree medical benefits at this time, but after the split each company can do as they wish. So does this mean after the split the company I retired from no longer exists?

If this doesn't tell us I don't know what does.

 

[Anonymous]

There's no value(except for the agent) in Whole Life. If they want to sell you a Whole Life policy, punch them in the mouth.

Correctomundo....Whole Life is a rip off...One planner told me they call it whole life because you are just as well to throw your money in a hole......Term insurance, lets say your 50 get a 15 year term policy cost ya about 300 a year if healthy for 250k in coverage, that is the way to go, life insurance should never, and I repeat, Never be a investment vehicle. It is Life insurance, you croak and your beneficiary gets paid the money they need to go on without your income....

 

[Anonymous]

Just got a letter from Abbott addressed to US Retirees. Says they aren't expecting any changes to retiree medical benefits at this time, but after the split each company can do as they wish. So does this mean after the split the company I retired from no longer exists?

This makes no sense. You retired under the Abbott umbrella. You are not moving to Newco????You are retired. Does that letter imply all retirees moving under Newco? I don't think so. You'd have to be working and not retired. I call bogus on this.

 

[Anonymous]

Not making it up. I don't understand it anymore than you do. The letter doesn't say which company will administer retiree medical benefits. But it is clear the letter is saying we are not obligated to continue your medical benefits although your accrued pension is secure. Poorly written communication from Abbott.

 

[Anonymous]

Not making it up. I don't understand it anymore than you do. The letter doesn't say which company will administer retiree medical benefits. But it is clear the letter is saying we are not obligated to continue your medical benefits although your accrued pension is secure. Poorly written communication from Abbott.

ALL communication from the HR has said "Subject to Change." I rest my case.

 

[Anonymous]

Companies can change/take away/increase premiums anything they want with medical - retiree or otherwise. Normally won't do it to those already retired (they can increase premiums and decrease coverage). No vesting as with a pension. Perfectly legal.

 

[Anonymous]

How long will it take for our society to understand corporate greed? Greed is good when all working components benefit. Greed is not good when only a few decision makers and stockholders do. That is truly the issue of our free market society.

Are you saying that all the years you made a good salary, had great benefits, and a relatively easy, safe job environment is now irrelevant? Throughout history, industries have changed, jobs have come and gone, and in dynamic economies, the workplace environment can change rapidly. That's happening before our eyes. The progress of medicine has been remarkable over the past 50 years, but all those advances and new therapies brought along new challenges.

The cost of new therapies to treat an ever-growing number of conditions for an aging population has strained our ability to pay for them. Greater government involvement has increased regulatory legislation and driven up costs, dooming the independent practitioner. Large group practices pressure physicians to see more patients, which meant they had less time to see reps. Genericization in disease states with tens of millions of patients meant far fewer reps needed to promote high-volume, high-profit meds. As an older patient population demanded lower costs for their pills, the pharma industry became an easy target for demagogues looking for a scapegoat.

It all adds up to a perfect storm for us to confront, and Abbott, like any organization, is planning for the future in an uncerstain economic environment. The company's goal is to survive, make a profit, and provide a decent return on its shareholders' investment. Unfortunately for many of us, that planning will include personnel reductions in areas that are deemed overstaffed. If I'm severed, I won't be happy about it, but I'll remember all the good things (pay, benefits, working conditions) the job provided, and do my best to succeed somewhere else. Our system isn't perfect, but it's far better than anything else.

 

[Anonymous]

This kind of sums it up...

Fidelity Investments estimates that a 65-year-old couple without employer-sponsored retiree healthcare coverage will need $225,000 to cover healthcare costs in retirement, 4.7 percent more than the 2007 estimate. This six-figure amount includes Medicare Part B premiums (which cover physician and outpatient hospital services) and Part D premiums (which cover drug-related expenses), Medicare copayments, co-insurance, deductibles, and excluded benefits, and out-of-pocket prescription drugs but does not include over-the-counter medications, most dental services, or the greatest expense of all--long-term care.

According to Fidelity's calculation, a 65-year-old worker earning $60,000 today and interested in retiring this year should expect to use 50 percent of pretax Social Security benefits to pay for personal healthcare expenses in the next 17 to 19 years.

 

[Anonymous]

This kind of sums it up...

Fidelity Investments estimates that a 65-year-old couple without employer-sponsored retiree healthcare coverage will need $225,000 to cover healthcare costs in retirement, 4.7 percent more than the 2007 estimate. This six-figure amount includes Medicare Part B premiums (which cover physician and outpatient hospital services) and Part D premiums (which cover drug-related expenses), Medicare copayments, co-insurance, deductibles, and excluded benefits, and out-of-pocket prescription drugs but does not include over-the-counter medications, most dental services, or the greatest expense of all--long-term care.

According to Fidelity's calculation, a 65-year-old worker earning $60,000 today and interested in retiring this year should expect to use 50 percent of pretax Social Security benefits to pay for personal healthcare expenses in the next 17 to 19 years.

What do they know? Let's just stick to rumors and hair-on-fire posts here. We don't need to hear any silly facts or projections from insurance companies or anyone else.
But wait; maybe we do. Here are MY projections, based on high level meetings that I was involved with last week: December 34,449. Feb 3,220,234 April $1.99