Fight for healthcare retiree benefits long and expensive

Our success in the fight with the state to keep our retiree healthcare benefits has been described as a grand slam.  As board members of RISE Delaware, the organization formed to save our benefits, we wholeheartedly agree.

Our fight began almost two years ago when former New Castle County Councilwoman Elisa Diller wrote an op-ed piece warning retirees of the state’s plan to take away our Medicare Supplement plan and force us into Medicare Advantage. Former Rep. John Kowalko, who also opposed Medicare Advantage, agreed to lend his name to the piece. After the op-ed was published, retirees were so concerned about the change that Rep. Mike Ramone and Rep. Mike Smith called a town hall meeting at Goldey-Beacom College. Roughly 300 angry retirees showed up to hear the state’s explanation of how such a terrible plan would be glorious for retirees, as the Carney Administration claimed.

The state’s presentation at the town hall meeting did little to quell the fears of retirees. In fact, it had the opposite effect. Retirees decided to fight back. Elisa Diller personally incorporated RISE Delaware to lead the fight. On Sept. 25, 2022, RISE Delaware filed a lawsuit in Superior Court, along with retired state Sen. Karen Peterson, and retired Department of Justice investigator Thomas Penoza. RISE hired attorneys, and with pro bono help from Mary Graham, attorney and wife of a University of Delaware retiree, we convinced the court the state had violated the Administrative Procedures Act when it secretly decided to switch retirees to Medicare Advantage. On Oct. 19, 2022, the Superior Court issued a stay that stopped the state from switching us to Medicare Advantage for the time being. Our litigation strategy succeeded in keeping the stay in place for an incredible year-and-a-half – until April 2024.

Although the Supreme Court ultimately reversed the Superior Court, the stay gave us the time and ability to carry out our strategy to fight the Carney Administration legislatively. In January 2023, the General Assembly created the Retiree Healthcare Benefits Advisory Subcommittee to study our health insurance costs and make recommendations. While in the beginning we had little faith, the RHBAS turned out to be an exemplar of good government. Instead of ignoring retirees (like the Carney Administration), the RHBAS – under the strong leadership of Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long and co-vice chairs Rep. Paul Baumbach and Sen. Bryan Townsend – actually welcomed our participation in a 10-month series of transparent and inclusive public hearings. The RHBAS was open about what it was doing, made materials publicly available and was attentive to retirees’ research and persuasive comments.

While the RHBAS was compiling its list of recommendations, the litigation stay forced the state to cancel its Medicare Advantage contract in September 2023 and renew our Medicare Supplement plan for a minimum of two years.

Baumbach took the recommendations of the RHBAS and turned them into legislation. Altogether, he introduced six bills. The first was to guarantee that employees and retirees receive the healthcare benefits they were promised – with no Medicare Advantage. A second bill effectively repudiated the administration’s arrogant view that the State Employee Benefits Committee, the committee responsible for the Medicare Advantage debacle, should remain under the administration’s total dominion and control, and not be subject to good government processes. The bill changed the composition of the SEBC to expand the participation of retirees and require advance notice of changes to healthcare plans so the state can never again pull a sneak attack on retirees. The remaining bills addressed funding and cost containment for financial sustainability of the benefit.  All six of Baumbach’s bills passed in the Legislature, including one that required the first veto override of a governor in 47 years.

Our fight was long and hard – and expensive. Retirees contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars for the litigation that saved our benefits. They, along with representatives from the public employee unions, contributed valuable research and testimony to the proceedings of the RHBAS, the SEBC and the General Assembly. 

All of these efforts – starting with the filing of the lawsuit in 2022 and lasting through the final day of the legislative session June 30 of this year – resulted in unanimous votes by the House and Senate to protect Delaware retirees well into the future. RISE Delaware is grateful to all who supported us over the past 22 months, especially Rep. Paul Baumbach who hit the grand slam that won the game.