The Fund members PLANNED AHEAD by enrolling in the GHLIF and paying life insurance premiums for many years so they could leave some money to their loved ones to pay final expenses and debts. Now, when it’s too late for most retirees to qualify for or afford any other life insurance, the government wants to reduce the payout amount to almost nothing. I question whether it’s even legal to drop the current retirees coverage amounts like this when most of them are at an age and stage where they have no other options to replace it, and no recourse to start over.
Negotiating for a new group policy is one thing, but limiting the value of the policies to $10,000 is beyond reason and frankly beyond belief. Many of the retirees have pre-existing health conditions like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, are on dialysis, or have a host of other chronic illnesses. How are all these people going to go out and get additional life insurance, as you suggest, when no one is going to insure them?. Even if an insurer would accept them, it would cost astronomical sums of money for retirees of advanced age, especially for those with health problems.
The retirees faithfully paid their premiums over the years with the contractual understanding that they were buying a specific amount of life insurance. It was part of the employment package. If indeed there will be reductions in the policy values of the group life insurance policies, then at a minimum the current retirees and those getting close to retirement age should be grandfathered in and allowed to keep their current coverage, since they have no other reasonable options.
BETTY JOHNSON
NMIRF member
Bradenton, Florida
