Florence resident Doris Montgomery recently lost her health insurance eligibility with the City of Northampton after having served Northampton’s school children for 18 years as a cafeteria worker.
Montgomery left her city job in 2002 at the age of 50 due to declining heath, but deferred her option to retire until age 55 or after. Upon her resignation, Montgomery visited the city treasurer’s office, which administered health benefits at the time, and received a signed letter from Assistant City Treasurer Heidi Sawicki, apparently authorized by Treasurer Helen Marusek and Benefits Coordinator Carolyn Horrigan.
The letter read in part: “This is a follow-up to our conversation of last week. Upon your retirement, you will be eligible to join the city’s health insurance plan as a retiree. If you choose not to participate at that particular time, you will have the opportunity to join once a year, during our open enrollment period, usually in the month of May. If you have any other questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact our office.”
But between the time Montgomery received the letter explaining her options and today, Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins changed the rules. In 2005, Higgins eliminated the health benefits option for any city worker with 10 or more years’ service who did not retire directly from city employment.
About a year after Higgins’ policy change, in November 2006, Montgomery received a letter from Glenda Stoddard, Northampton’s human resources director, who now administers health benefits: “This letter is to inform you that we have implemented a new policy relative to employee and retiree eligibility for the City of Northampton’s Group Health Insurance benefits. The content of this policy supersedes any other policy or information you may have. I have enclosed a copy of the policy for your review. This policy can be changed and updated as the needs of the city dictate. Please call me if you have any questions.”
After examining the new policy, Montgomery concluded that she had lost health insurance eligibility retroactively because she had not directly retired from the city. There had been no advance opportunity to enroll in its group health insurance plan because the policy was altered without notice, contrary to Higgins’ assertion in an interview: “I know that we notified everybody in writing who had 10 years or more in the plan… We notified them that the change was going to happen.” She further added, “I will say to you that we’re looking at individual cases as they come forward and if there is an individual case that seems like they didn’t quite understand it, we’re going to look at that and try and make it fair… if somebody comes forward saying, We retired and were given this and then this happened and so on, we’re going to work with them. But I’m not going to necessarily work with somebody who worked for the city 10 or 12, 15 years—just go work someplace else for 20 years and then come back—that they are necessarily going to get on our health insurance.”
After receiving the notification, Montgomery made three visits and as many phone calls to Higgins’ office. But, Montgomery says, Higgins was not accessible and still has not responded.
In an open letter to Higgins and the Northampton City Council that was distributed to the Springfield Republican and Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton’s former Human Resources Director Don Teres takes issue with Higgins’ policy change: “The 10-plus people who elected to take the ‘deferred retirement option’ worked for the City of Northampton and on behalf of its residents for a minimum of 10 years… They were dedicated and hard working, and understood and believed that if they stayed long enough to earn the benefit they were promised, it would be there for them when it came time for them to retire. On behalf of those retirees, I would ask you to reconsider amending the policy to make it prospective and continue to honor the words and administrative practices of past administrations.”
