To: Ford Salaried Retirees:

After four years providing volunteer services to Salaried Retirees, the Peer Support group has disbanded, and pages other than this one have been removed.

From our founding in 2008, we encouraged retirees to carefully “do their homework” before selecting their health care insurance plan. We suggested that retirees contact at least two different competitive sources in order to compare recommendations and prices. We never made specific recommendations ourselves.

The most important decision for a Salaried Retiree is the one that is made upon reaching age 65, when the individual joins Medicare and Ford health care coverage is terminated. At that time the retiree has a choice of every plan available in both Medicare Advantage and Medigap without being subject to any considerations of pre-existing health conditions or other restrictions. It is called “Guarantee Issue.”

Peer Support accepted from the start that Ford was part of a national trend in trying to exit from the Medicare health insurance. We don’t believe, however, that stakeholders envisioned the level of controversy that would ensue and that is continuing. We were pleased that Ford offered a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) and were determined to work closely with the Company and to not participate in the public debate.

After reduced activity in 2010 and 2011 for Peer Support, we think that the combination of the Federal budget debates; the expected Supreme Court decision in June, 2012, and specific issues in Michigan largely involving Blue Cross/Blue Shield may again lead to the need for many Medicare-age retirees to review their coverage and possibly consider alternatives.

The Ford Employee Benefit Office has assured Peer Support that they believe the systems with their vendors and administrators are working far better than in the first few years and that the company is confident this trend will continue. Ford, therefore, believed that it was no longer necessary to maintain the previous collaborative relationship with the Peer Support organization or to include our name in company communications. We certainly hope Ford’s assessment is correct.

Our web site has received almost 25,000 unique visits. It also was our pleasure to provide response and information directly to several thousand individual retire e-mail requests. Thank you for your confidence in our service.

Peer Support Volunteers