Pfizer Hits Ehrlich with $5216 to $8357 in Retiree Health Benefit Costs!

For a real life demonstration of how inadequate McCain's health plan is, even for well-off pharmaceutical company retirees, I offer the following from Bob Ehrlich who wrote in his eNewsletter for DTC Executives (find his entire article over at DTC Perspectives Blog):

"I am considered a Pfizer retiree. I worked there for about three days after their takeover of Warner-Lambert in 2000. I am covered for health insurance by the Pfizer retiree plan. When I received the retiree newsletter last week I was rather shocked to see that insurance costs will rise dramatically starting in 2009. Apparently Pfizer and many other corporations have capped their contributions which reached a peak in 2008. So all retirees are going to carry the up charges from now on.

"Pfizer says our costs will be $5216 in 2009, $8357 in 2010 and $11,808 in 2011. Sounds like a bubble to me. The company says these rates are still less than if we went out on our own to buy health insurance. I do not like paying these rates but I can afford it. What about the majority of their retirees who cannot afford such rising costs? I imagine there are millions of retirees who face this same dilemma from thousand of corporations."

If McCain were elected president and was able to implement his $5,000 tax credit for buying health insurance in the "open" and de-regulated insurance market, Erhlich would immediately lose $216 and up to $6,1808 in 3 years. That's considering just the cost of subsidized benefit. He would also be likely to pay taxes on the portion of the benefit paid by Pfizer.

What would Erhlich have to pay for health insurance if it were not subsidized by Pfizer? That is, what would he pay in the "open" market? If he is going to pay $11,808 for his share of a subsidized plan, I got to imagine the total bill for his plan is at least 2X that! Yikes! Could he afford that in an "open" market? What group would he be able to join that can offer a better deal than the thousands of Pfizer retirees?

Maybe this is why only 31% of Pharmaceutical employees who have taken my "McCain vs. Obama: Who's Better for Pharma" survey say they will vote for McCain versus 54% who say they will vote for Obama!

Check Out McCain's "Tiki Bar!"

Presidential candidate John McCain currently has one of his 7 or so houses up for sale on Realtor.com. I learned about this from Peter Rost's Blog where you can find the link to the listing of this $12,000,000, 9 Bed, 8 Bath, 14,000 Sq. Ft. house that would cost you $65,619 per month if only you could obtain a mortgage.

Scrolling through the 13 photos of this "single-family" dwelling, I found the above photo of the outdoor "tiki bar." That more than anything bothered me.

For months now I have been dreaming of and designing my very own tiki bar that I may be able to afford after my two sons finish college. I've been looking at storage sheds that could be converted to house the bar and a portable sink connected by a hose to my house's water supply. I would run electric extension cords from my house to power the lights and small refrigerator. No thatched roof -- that would be too expensive. I notice that McCain's tiki bar also does not have a thatched roof. That much I have in common with McCain -- when I am able to get my tiki bar that is.

BTW, have you decided yet who you will vote for in November? Please take my McCain Vs. Obama. Who's Better for Pharma Survey. You can remain anonymous and will be able to view the results so far. Over 250 people have already taken this survey.

Welcome Back CNTO411!

Just when I was going to post something about the inactivity over at Centocor's CNTO411 blog, I see that Michael Parks, Centocor's Vice President of Corporate Communications and now CNTO411's only voice, just submitted a post about "GeneRAtions," a new rheumatoid arthritis awareness program and web site.

Parks does not get into what he has been doing since he last made a post over 2 months ago on May 20, 2008. I guess this RA awareness program gobbled up much of his spare time.

Side note: Michael, I missed you at my networking dinner reception! Maybe you'd like to be a guest again on one of my Pharma Marketing Talk show and podcast interviews and talk about GeneRAtions?

The GeneRAtions web site has this visual time line, which is shown here (click to enlarge):

An attempt is made to personalize each generation with an image of a person representing that generation. All I can say is:

Mike, don't let John McCain see this!

While the "peacenik" depicted here was kinda what I was like in the 70's -- my grandmother called me Jesus because of my long hair, beard, sandals and beads -- it is not a politically correct image for John McCain who missed out on all the fun.

I see that a black woman was chosen to represent the new millenium geneRAtion, an image that I'm sure Barack and Michelle Obama would approve of.

Of course, it would be more interesting if it looked like this:

Which is more like how McCain sees the world today!