Stop removing prescription insurance coverage for state employees hired before July of 2011

I ask that you support those of us who dedicated our lives to the state of Maryland and support the bills that protect retirees of the state and our current prescription plan.

Please keep the State prescription drug coverage for retirees. This is undue burden on the wrong part of the population.

Reneging on promises made to us when we were hired is unacceptable.

We need to let our legislative representatives know that retirees and employees who began working before July 2011 should be grandfathered in and keep the prescription drug benefits they’ve earned. This not only affects faculty and staff at universities but also k-12 teachers, police officers, and state employees. It may also affect current and future employees if the state promise is not kept when they retire in the future.

I have been a dedicated faculty member for 37 years, and have always expected the State of Maryland to keep the promises it made when I moved here from out-of-state. I would have expected the State to show the same level of dedication to employees that the employees show to the State.

I am planning to retire on July 1, 2024, and would prefer not to worry about this issue. I have been a UMD staff since January 1993.

Renegading on decade-long retirement promises to current and former long-devoted employees is unacceptable. We should all make this clear to elected State officials and tell them that we are not going to keep quiet about it.

Leave this alone, please. As a 24-year employee with plans to not retire for another 6 years from now, this is not a welcomed change.