UPDATE: Should White Plains Retirees Pay 15% For Health Insurance? [POLL]

• Correction: The dollar amounts were changed from $2,000 to $3,000 to $2,000 to $5,000 to reflect additional reports from retirees. Some information has been altered or added for clarification.

Imagine planning your retirement, as a White Plains civil service employee, firefighter or police officer, based on the fact that the job came with free health insurance—then finding that you need to hand over between $2,000 to $5,000 and start paying the city 15 percent for that insurance from now on.

This became reality for city employees after the White Plains Common Council approved a measure in 2010, as a consent item without public discussion, to charge retired civil service employees, firefighters and police officers 15 percent of their insurance costs.

Retirees argue that when they signed contracts to work for the city they were promised free health insurance during retirement. Some recieved the benefits after working for the city for a certain amount of time, and some employees had to pay into their health insurance. 

According to The Journal News, About 640 former employees have filed federal lawsuits to keep their health insurance free. 

Karen Pasquale, senior advisor to the mayor, told The Journal News that the city asked retirees to share health insurance costs, since the costs have increased—forcing municipalities all over the country to consider these types of options.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Robinson issued a temporary injunction so retirees wouldn’t have to lose their insurance for not making their first payment by Jan. 10, The Journal News reports. 

However, when he retired, U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel lifted the stay so retirees would not have to pay unless they proved financial hardship. The Journal News reported that Seibel denied the city's motion to dismiss the case. The issue should go to trial sometime in 2012. 

Click here to read The Journal News' story.

What do you think?

• Should the City ask its retirees to pay 15 percent of their health insurance costs?
• Should retirees have to shoulder the cost of a 15 percent increase?
• Why or why not?

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