Tuesday, March 26, 2002
Thousands of LTV widows have so little income that they can't afford to pay for insurance, one retiree said.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
WARREN -- With her LTV Steel health insurance ending Sunday, Nellie Leon called her drugstore to find out how much her eight prescriptions were going to cost.
The 81-year-old widow of an LTV worker was so stunned by the cost of her first prescription that she told the clerk to forget about the rest.
She has no idea how she will afford the arthritis pills, which will cost $135 for a three-month supply. With LTV insurance, she paid either $2 or $5 for a three-month supply of each of her medications.
"It's really bad," said Leon, of Warren, whose husband, Bill, died 14 years ago.
Perhaps, she said, she will skip her pills and live the best she can.
"You work hard all your life, and they end up taking everything from you," she said.
Leon is one of about 6,000 LTV retirees or widows in the Mahoning Valley who are agonizing this week over how they are going to afford health-care insurance.
The bankrupt steelmaker, which is selling off its plants, has enough money to pay benefits only until Sunday.
Getting insurance: "Everybody is hustling to get insurance," said Mike Rubicz, president of United Steelworkers of America Local 1375 in Warren.
Bill Harrison, a WCI Steel retiree who is helping the LTV retirees, said widows such as Leon are in a hard spot because they are receiving only a survivor's share of their husband's pension and Social Security benefits. He said LTV, which has about 80,000 retirees nationwide, has about 12,000 widows who have pensions of less than $200 a month.
"It really doesn't matter what option you give them. They can't afford it," he said.
Leon said her pension is $130 a month. The LTV insurance had a co-payment, which was raised recently to $134 a month, meaning she has been living off $887 a month in Social Security, plus savings.
Leon, who has been studying insurance options as president of the union's retirees group, said it's been hard to figure out how to replace the LTV insurance.
"The more insurance guys you talk to, the more complicated it gets," she said.
Options: Harrison said most retirees and widows over 65 won't be too bad off because they have Medicare. The government program doesn't cover prescriptions, however, so the retirees and widows are trying to determine if they can afford supplemental Medicare coverage.
One company has joined with Medicare to provide a plan for $54 a month that provides coverage for only generic drugs and pays benefit amounts that are much less than the LTV insurance.