Given members’ growing anxiety over the planned changes to state retiree prescription drug coverage, AFT-Maryland brought in Sherry Kolbe of the Baltimore County Department of Aging for a workshop on enrolling in Medicare Part D. The workshop covered everything from explaining what Medicare Part D is, to giving retirees an opportunity to see what the set up would look like. The event was held at the Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU) and a wide range of retirees were in attendance. There were the aforementioned state retirees as well as retirees from Baltimore city, because the city plans to transfer their retirees prescription drug coverage to Medicare Part D in 2020. After hearing pushback from BTU, City Union of Baltimore (CUB), and AFSCME retirees, Baltimore City Council members have agreed to work on a fix for the city retirees.
The information was useful for everyone in attendance. State retirees are awaiting the results of a lawsuit to stop the state from transferring retirees to Medicare, but in the meantime, AFT-Maryland provided our retirees with the information they will need to ensure they do not go without prescription drug coverage. Ms. Kolbe broke her informational session down into two parts, and at the end of each she took questions. She even stayed around the session a little longer to speak with people one-on-one.
AFT-Maryland will continue to update members on any new information it receives about Medicare Part D so our retirees can stay as up-to-date and as informed as possible.
See more photos from the event on our Facebook page.
2018-09-25
