Embarq Retirees Lose Health Insurance
How much do you love freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies, cute puppies and sex? That’s how much we loooove leaked corporate documents. This missive from Embarq Senior Vice President of Human Resources Ned Holland was sent “To all employees” today. (That’s always ominous.) We transcribed it as it was read over the phone by our source. It says that the phone company, which was spun off from Sprint, is cutting health coverage and life insurance for Medicare-eligible retirees. Because, when it comes time to cut costs, the old people always get it first.
To all employees:
Today we are announcing changes to our retiree benefits program designed to better balance the needs of Embarq retirees, employees, shareholders, customers and other stakeholders. Maintaining our strength in a fiercely competitive, perpetually changing industry such as ours never has been tougher than it is today. Outside competition, outdated regulatory policies, and out of control health care costs force us to challenge the status quo. Staying competitive sometimes requires that we make important choices. The changes being implemented will affect our retirees in three areas: Medical benefits for Medicare-eligible individuals and Medicare-eligible dependents, company-provided life insurance, and the Embarq matching gift program [which matches Embarq employees donations to nonprofits and alma maters].
