mailman

So......for the sake of bringing everything out into the light. We should all be aware of the proposed changes to our current guaranteed yearly costs: from what I read, beginning Jan 2017 (because the 2016 rates will already be established), the company will appoint an accountant type to determine the projected health care cost based on our prior years usage as a group and other factors (that they deem fit) and they will base our premiums on 18% (19% in 2019..and so on) of that number.

So....the important thing I take from this is our future health care premiums will no longer be a fixed known cost but rather a sliding increasing scale to which we have 0 control.

Please someone tell me I'm missing something here. Holy crap!

MalteseX

Yes. You are correct. Unknown premium costs of which we share a percentage -- and variable every year.

FoxHunter

Are you aware that FedEx is self insured. Anthem Blue Cross is at TPA(third party administrator) for FedEx. When you receive benefits it comes directly off the FedEx Express bottom line. My wife is still covered by the FedEx pilot buy up plan which I pay $641 a month. She has been denied treatment because it was not medically necessary. The real reason is the cost. In my wife's case we will pay out of pocket.

Rum Runner

I read it the same way as you. I hope i'm missing something. Very scary!!

Raptor

So, with this TA, the pilots become the risk manager and SELF-insurer at 18%?

Let's say someone's kid or spouse gets cancer and it takes one million in health care costs. That event alone would raise premiums by $45 a pilot.

I realize the max annual jump once the initial rates are set at 18% in October 2017, is 10% a year, but that initial jump to us bearing 18% of the costs is unconstrained.

Do you want to sign something that has an unknown cost that comes from your pocket? By leaving the cost to us at a percentage, the true cost is hidden. Is that number $4000 a year for family buy-up, or $9000 a year?

Suddenly that 10% initial pay raise looks even less sufficient. Now we might be under COLA. Same thing goes for the annual 3% raises...they rise at a lesser rate than the 10% health care max increases.

So....... a decreasing value A plan (because the 260k cap remains while inflation rises), our health care premiums potentially (likely) rising dramatically, destruction of $thousands in travel perks for the FDA folks (elimination of the international hotel in lieu of DH for their intra-European DHs), sick notes not fixed, most of the CRS shenanigans not fixed, giving up first class international DH in most cases, permitting 767 crew rest sitting bolt upright in the flight deck Jumpseat simply by getting 36 hours off, giving the company free reign to use 6-week bid periods with no restrictions which could destroy some vacation tactics over the holidays and gets extra productivity out of us, permitting the company to Jumpseat us back to Memphis so we don't miss our next outbound trip when they can't get us on a commercial flight, permitting the company to use sleep rooms instead of hotel rooms in some cases (would make it difficult to get a sleep room when J/S in/out like you can now on a space available basis), some bonuses applying to only 54 year olds and older, retirement bonus that keeps encourages pilots to fly sick for half pay, etc, etc.

All this for measley raises and a long contract. We, as pilots, take on the inflation risk with such low raises when the contract extends through 2021. We will be leap frogged by other pay rates in short order and stuck for years.

Conan

Nice summary Raptor & amen brother! Need to burn copies of this & distribute in hubs!

Raptor

Oh, and lots of pilots losing Passover Pay that's potentially worth more than the initial raise! With the monster training letter and hiring into all F/O seats and delayed training out to Captain, this is a huge win....for the company 😡

MEMA300

So do we no longer have a plan that has you pays premiums with copy's and no deductibles?

FoxHunter

I was told 20+ years ago that FedEx was self insured. You can't tell the difference from the typical health insurance policy on the front side. My wife was talking to a law firm about her issue and they wanted a copy of the policy. After numerous requests to pilot benefits for the policy they said "In the below emails, you're asking for a policy and I assumed we were still talking about the guidelines. FedEx is self-insured and as such we don't have a "policy". We do have a Plan Document which I will pull together and send to you as soon as possible.". Pilot benefits sent me the plan. There is nothing in the plan that would exclude treatment of my wife. Anthem blames the FedEx plan and FedEx blames Anthem guidelines. The out of pocket at issue is a little less than $100,000.

I really don't know the inner workings of how the self insured plan works. My guess is FedEx pays a fee to Anthem plus possibly a percentage with some kind of financial incentive to keep the cost down.

mailman

The plan itself will remain similar from what I read with a few exceptions (such as less flexibility with network vs. out of network and a few other things). The big thing here is our new premiums cost. With our current CBA you know every year what to expect for premiums cost and the company has a max increase which still keeps our premiums very affordable. In the new TA our premiums cost is completely unknown and will be a surprise every year.....(example: "Folks, this year our actuary has determined that your health care plan cost will be $XXXX times 18% and therefore your new buy up plan premiums will be $1175 per month....don't like it? Too bad!)