Retiree Prescription Drug Plan Changes: Understanding What Happened and Where We Are Now
Since 2011, the State of Maryland has been trying to balance their budget on the backs of Public Employees. AFSCME Maryland will continue to fight to protect retiree benefits and protect the State’s ability to recruit and retain qualified staff. Here’s what happened and where we are now.
During the recession of the late 2000’s, Governor O’Malley attempted to balance the budget by reducing pension and health benefits. We fought to stop these changes and held the biggest rally ever in Annapolis demanding he “Keep the Promise”. We stopped most of the changes except a reduction in prescription drug benefits.
The State of Maryland is claiming the cost is too high to keep their promise and restore full benefits to State of Maryland Retiree’s and would risk increasing the state’s liability to over $10 billion.
This year, despite opposition from AFSCME and many other unions, legislators passed SB 946 moving the majority of workers to Medicare Part D. We fought to make the changes coming as transparent as possible and will continue to fight to improve the benefits. Review the table below to see how you could be impacted:
An independent group of retirees collectively filed an injunction to stop the change in 2018. The lawsuit will continue and none of these changes will go into effect until a minimumn of 8-9 months after it’s conclusion.
AFSCME is fighting to restore benefits and exploring all options. As we have more information, we will keep our members updated.
