COATESVILLE, Pa. (AP) -- Thousands of retirees who once handled molten steel for a living are suddenly facing bewildering new challenges as they confront the complexities of health insurance.þþBethlehem Steel retirees jammed an echoing union hall near the Bethlehem Lukens Plate mill in Coatesville Wednesday to ponder options once the bankrupt company cuts off what were once billed as lifetime health care benefits.þþ``We're all up in the air,'' said Bernard Majewski, 65, of Shenandoah, who worked 37 1/2 years as a millwright. ``I thought I was in tight for the rest of my life; we all thought that. Everybody's worked here most of their life, and everybody got a kick in the butt.''þþThe union scheduled meetings this week and next to brief retirees near present and former Bethlehem operations in Maryland, Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania. The former steelworkers are learning about a soup of acronyms like COBRA, HIPPA and HISC, important terms to know as they try to replace lost insurance. A Benefit Watch section on the union Web site also gives updates.þþ``This is a brave new world for many of you. You probably never had to think about buying health care,'' Tom Duzak, director of the United Steelworkers union's pension and benefits department, told the retirees.þþUnion leaders at tables at the front of the hall confirmed the bad news: After March 31, Bethlehem Steel will stop paying any part of premiums for coverage of hospital bills, doctor bills or prescription drug costs that run into the thousands of dollars for many retirees.þþ``This is going to cost you some money,'' Ike Gittlen, president of Steelworkers Local 1688, told the group. ``You're going to have to figure out how to pay for this.''þþCosts will vary widely. Bethlehem Steel had some 20 health care plans and each plan had various rate scales. For Coatesville retirees, many couples who paid about $300 monthly will now have to pay more than $500, and some will face family rates higher than $900 a month.þþThree sessions Tuesday at Coatesville drew more than 760 people, some using wheelchairs and a few with oxygen pumps that hissed audibly during silences. Retirees and their relatives sat in metal folding chairs, listened to talks, saw slides and talked it over afterward on the sidewalk outside.þþ``It's confusing,'' said Alvin Rauck, 72, of Strasburg. ``And it's bad.''þþ``It's going to be $800 for me and my wife,'' said George Barrage, 60, who worked for 40 years at the Coatesville plant and heads the area Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees chapter. ``I've got to go back to work, have to find something to do.''þþCalls flooded into the organization's offices after Bethlehem sought Bankruptcy Court approval in February to end health benefits March 31 for 95,000 retirees and dependents.þþ``It's like going to sleep and your house is on fire. Now how are we going to save it?'' Barrage said. ``People cried. They called me crying.''þþThe meetings are being followed up with individual counseling sessions in which union experts, the state Agency on Aging and the Chester County Office of Aging will help sort through the choices.þþ``You have a lot of multiple choices, I'm sure,'' said Fred Poe, 72, who worked 41 years as a crane operator. He likened the collapse of the health plans to ``another Enron.''þþThe county Office of Aging also was deluged with calls, said Andy Dinniman, a county commissioner at the union hall session. ``The point made over and over again was 'We played by all the rules' -- how unfair it is, as we find ourselves in our 80s and 90s, to be thrown this curve.''þþBarrage and Zoltan Varga, 80, recalled proud times at the plant, including putting in 16-hour days turning out steel for the World Trade Center in the late 1960s. More recently, Coatesville made armor plate to repair the bomb-damaged destroyer USS Cole.þþConfident that their labor would earn them lifetime security, many workers didn't worry about those details, said Dave McLimans, 57, of Coatesville, a Local 1165 official who displayed ``a few scars'' from molten steel spatters from 15 years in the blast furnace.þþ``It's always done for you,'' McLimans said, ``and when those advisers have gone away that do it for you ... you've got to learn a whole lot real fast or get hurt real bad.''þþ
Source: NY Times
