Originally published June 14 2005
Metro Detroit residents suffer service cutbacks, tax hikes, due to health care costs
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Detroit News recently posted an article about how the state, county and city governments are cutting services like police forces and libraries to help pay for the skyrocketing costs of retiree health benefits.
Metro Detroit communities and taxpayers, already stretched to nearly the breaking point, are facing billions of dollars in costs for medical benefits for retirees.
In an environment that even now has seen a library turned over to an almost all-volunteer work force, and a county seat having to eliminate its police department, the medical costs could push many communities to the very limits of their financial abilities.
In Dearborn, for example, all but one of the workers at the Bryant Branch of the public library are now volunteers because the city was threatening to close the branch to cope with a budget crunch.
Many local governments and school districts have begun cutting services as they struggle to fund the benefits, which often include medical, dental, optical and drug coverage for everyone from teachers and City Hall clerks to county sheriffs and state employees.
The scope of the problem is still coming into focus, thanks to a recent accounting rule change that will force governments to tally the cost of the promised benefits and report how they will pay for them.
But unlike pensions, which by law are funded years in advance, most governments have saved nothing for a health care liability that in many communities now outpaces the cost of the pensions.
Oakland has saved $230 million for retiree health care since 1986, said Deputy County Executive Robert Daddow.
Macomb County has earmarked about $90 million for retiree health care since 1993, said Finance Director Dave Diegel.
In 2003, Macomb County spent $7.3 million on retiree health care and put another $9 million into the savings account for future costs, but in 2004, a deficit left no money for savings.
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