More companies taking a knife to health insurance for retirees

By VANESSA FUHRMANS and THEO FRANCIS The Wall Street Journal Watauga, Euless touted by 'Money' magazine as top places to live General Motors Corp.’s move to eliminate retiree health benefits for salaried workers is a sobering signal to the rest of the U.S. work force: Even those who are in or near retirement shouldn’t count on keeping the com- pany coverage they have built up. Since the early 1990s, employers eager to get out from the increasing burden of retiree healthcare have been whittling away at those benefits. At some companies, new or younger workers have been excluded from retiree health benefits. Older workers and existing retirees often got to keep the benefits but had to pay a larger share of the costs. But GM’s announcement that it would cease medical coverage for its salaried retirees age 65 and above signals... [read full story]