City Retirees Blast New Health Care Premiums In City Budget
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CHICAGO (CBS) -- As aldermen prepared to approve the mayor's 2015 budget plan on Wednesday, retired city workers were complaining they would be hurt by health care premiums included in the spending plan.
WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports officials with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees said health premiums for retirees have gone up before. In this year's budget, for a single retired person eligible for Medicare, premiums would jump from $1,300 to $2,100 a year.
On average, monthly health care premiums for city retirees would go up 40 percent under the mayor's budget.
"I would be paying $4,200 dollars more next year than I paid this year; $629 a month," said Mary Jones, a retired library worker who heads the local AFSCME retirees group.
About a dozen aldermen joined union members at City Hall before Wednesday's budget vote as a show of solidarity, but Ald. Howard Brookins (21st), who heads the Council Black Caucus, said the aldermen still planned to approve the budget, because talks are underway
"We brought this to the mayor and the administration. They said that they would work on it. There are a couple different solutions out there. The numbers have not adequately been analyzed and distilled to figure out the exact number of retirees that this is disproportionately affecting."
Brookins said he's hopeful, but he wouldn't say where the city would get the money to ease the burden on retired workers.
Though the mayor's budget is expected to easily pass through the City Council on Wednesday, it would be several weeks until retirees' new health premiums go into effect.
