San Francisco Supervisor Daly Drops Plan To Reduce City Employee Retiree Health Benefits
San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly on Wednesday dropped plans to push for scaled-back retirement health benefits for city workers in the face of opposition from unions representing the employees, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Lelchuk, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/8). Retiree health benefits are available to employees who have worked for the city for five years, beginning at age 50. In addition, the retiree benefits program does not have income restrictions, and employees who left their city jobs for positions with other employers are still eligible for retiree benefits from the city. Under the current retiree benefits package, the city pays half of retirees' health insurance costs, and retirees can enroll dependents in the program. The cost of San Francisco's retiree health benefits program is expected to increase from $23.7 million in 2001 to $68.8 million in 2004 and to $119.2 million by 2007 (California Healthline, 4/26). According to the Chronicle, the city controller's office estimates that providing health benefits to retirees with fewer than 10 years of service to the city costs San Francisco about $9.1 million annually. Daly said he hopes to revisit the issue next year (San Francisco Chronicle, 7/8).
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