AOL pits 401Ks against healthcare benefits.

Nurses Activism

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CEO of AOL made a recent decison (later reversed over the uproar he caused) to delay contributions to employees' retirement plans after two women gave birth to 'distressed' babies, and those healthcare costs exceeded 2 million $.

His excuse (even after AOL reported its biggest gains ever, and he was paid 12 million $), was that those two women cost so much money, from a self-insured health plan, that he had to find a way to recoup those losses.

Turns out that many of those huge companies with self-insured healthcare policies also have stop-loss liability plans to prevent them from paying for excessive healthcare costs. Meaning- the CEO of AOl made a decision to delay funding retirement plans, based on the allegation that AOL suffered huge losses to care for those two preemies, even though AOL really didn't pay for those 2 million $ in healthcare?

Sick.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I'm glad this has blown up in his face. I'm wondering if he decided to gamble by not buying re-insurance (stop-loss insurance) and lost big time. If the CEO of AOL wanted to cut 401(k) matching, he should've just said so, instead of looking for a scapegoat.

Slate published an article by the mother of one of those expensive babies. Her story could very easily be mine. I have twins due in April. One has a congenital heart defect, which will require 3 operations (including open-heart surgery within the first week of life), at least a month in the NICU, home health services, and lots more, all by age 5. I carry the family health insurance. I suppose I could have aborted as soon as I found out, and saved my employer some money, but why should I be afraid to use a benefit that I've been paying into for almost 3 years? Isn't this what health insurance is all about?

Finally, why pick on babies? What about cancer survivors, extreme sports enthusiasts, people who ride motorcycles, people who drive, or old people? It's very expensive to get sick in America.

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Not to mention there could be 10's of 1000's of AOL employees that pay premiums, and never cost AOL a dime in healthcare services.

Why pick on babies? Easy targets. It's the typical Republican view: You 'will not' use birth control, and you 'will' have that baby, want to or not (and whether it's malformed or otherwise distressed)- once it's born, however, you are on your own.

But even though he acted contrite- he did make the decision to stop routine retirement contributions, in favor of an annual lump sum payment. This means that anyone that quits or is fired befor the end of the year, gets no money for that year. I never heard of that trick before, but from what I read, more companies are doing the same thing?

Best of luck on your journey, NAH_Person~

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No doubt, the CEO didn't handle this well .

However, how is this a republican issue?

You have no idea if they had to pay the $2 million, do you?

The matching contributions are a benefit that more and more companies don't offer at all. And if they do, you usually have to be employed a certain amount of years to take those contributions with you. So those who might have left early and not received what they could have for the year have already received thousands from the company over several years.

He certainly could have handled this better, buts let's stop acting like he is satan's messenger.

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No doubt, the CEO didn't handle this well .

However, how is this a republican issue?

You have no idea if they had to pay the $2 million, do you?

The matching contributions are a benefit that more and more companies don't offer at all. And if they do, you usually have to be employed a certain amount of years to take those contributions with you. So those who might have left early and not received what they could have for the year have already received thousands from the company over several years.

He certainly could have handled this better, buts let's stop acting like he is satan's messenger.

The only advice I can give to any Republican is to go to skool and lern how to rede n' rite.

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