The Value of a Promise

 The Value of a Promise

 

     Uxbridge, Massachusetts is, pretty much, the only world I have known. I’ve lived my entire life here, worked here, raised my family here, and I plan to live out my days here.  It has given me a fantastic life for which I am forever grateful.  

     But, it is not perfect.  And when issues arise that have the potential to harm it and its people, points of discussion need to be raised.

    So please bear with me

     On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Bill into law.  According to the US Government's website, ssa.org, “The Social Security Act established two types of provisions for old-age security: (1) Federal aid to the States to enable them to provide cash pensions to their needy aged, and (2) a system of Federal old-age benefits for retired workers. The first measure was designed to provide immediate assistance to destitute aged individuals. The second was a preventive measure intended to reduce the extent of future dependency among the aged and to assure workers that their years of employment entitled them to a life income.”  Putting this into context, before social security passed, there was no guarantee of pension for a retiree, often causing people to work until the day they died, or to rely on assistance from family, friends, or charity. The third option was destitution. Quite a reward for a lifetime of hard work.

 

     Can you imagine the effects on our senior citizens if that entitlement was suddenly cut?  Like hitting a financial wall at 100 miles per hour.

      A second safety measure was the inception of employer provided insurance.  According to the US Chamber of Commerce, this perk was designed in post-WWII to help “retain and attract workers”.  In 1954, the government doubled down on this by creating section 106 to the Internal Revenue Code, allowing employees to deduct the value of this health insurance from their taxable income.

       As a third act, the US government further protected its senior citizens when President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed Medicare into law.  Again, according to ssa.org, “ Prior to Medicare, only a little over one-half of those aged 65 and over had some type of hospital insurance; few among the insured group had insurance covering any part of their surgical and out-of-hospital physicians' costs. Also, there were numerous instances where private insurance companies were terminating health policies for aged persons in the high risk category.”

 

     Again, the effects on our elderly population if these entitlements (which eligible people paid into for years) were suddenly cut would be impossible to quantify.  Each of these was a long term promise made to us.  You can count on being protected as you age in our country.

     Why the sudden civics lesson?  Because I fear there may be a sudden change in Uxbridge that will have long term, terrible consequences to a group of people who served our town for decades.

     To be fair, employer based health insurance is a problem that every town and city is facing.  Doomsday predictions about social security and medicare running out of money have also stirred the pot for decades now.  There is no denying that health insurance is one of the financial third rails that no one wants to touch, mainly because there is no easy answer on how to fix them.

     But, the answer is not to demand more from those who have done their jobs for decades under the promise that when they retire they could count on their health insurance plans (supplemental Medicare plans included) stay at a rate they could afford.  It is a perk earned when you take the job, and should not be altered well after you have completed the job.

 

     Word is getting around town that the Board of Selectmen and town manager are looking to vote on changing the rates at which retired town employees pay for their health insurance.  The possibility that these people, who for many years have lived under an 80%(town)-20% (employee) agreed upon split, could see their portion rise to as high as 50% by February of this year is very real.  That is over double what they are currently paying.  Add to that the meteoric rise in health care costs each year, and this will be a sudden increase that could change many lives for the worse. 

      These people have no negotiation leverage.

     And the toughest part is that they had been living under a promise that was made by the town of Uxbridge in 2009.  Simplified, the agreement was for town retirees (if eligible) to go on Medicare at age 65, and in return the town would agree to take on 80% of retiree health care costs.  It was hailed by many, on both sides, as a good deal.  This agreement continues to save the town thousands of dollars per insured person per year because they are no longer on the town’s insurance plan.

      Now, that 80% could go as low as 51%.  We’re talking about many retired teachers, police officers, firefighters, town hall workers, and DPW employees potentially losing hundreds of dollars per month.  On fixed incomes.  In a time of consistent inflation in every aspect of life.

      When you are a townie, you are part of a community fabric that includes interactions with its public employees.  Some of my favorite people worked for this town.  I have been formed as a person through my time with them.  Names like Moe Bergeron, Mark Donahue, Harley Keeler, Patty Creighton, Jack Creighton, Joan Remillard, Pauline McCue, Aline Knapick, Dean Tourangeau, Mike Legendre, Ray and Betsy Brown, Bev Clarke and many, many others are firmly cemented in my life and memories.  They made me feel included and protected.  The thought that their quality of life could crater at this point in their lives is difficult to accept.  They counted on a promise, and promises have value.  How can we accept any new agreements going forward if they could be changed at any point?

    I am also not naive or unsympathetic to the plight of the taxpayers of Uxbridge, my wife and I being two of them.  The costs of health care are reaching the point of unsustainability, with no end in sight.  I myself will be retiring in June from Uxbridge High School, and was looking forward to the protections of the retiree health benefits. But, that would also mean my parents, both in their eighties, would pay higher taxes so I could have that protection.  I am still young and can adapt to changes.  People who have been retired for ten plus years can not.

     It is time for the town to get creative and find a way to protect these people by finding cuts in different places.

     There is a reason this country does not allow ex post facto laws.  It’s also the same reason we grandfather people after new laws are passed.  Change should move forwards, not backwards.  We aim for progress, not regress.

      Uxbridge really is a unique, wonderful place to live.  It should value the promise it made, and keep it.