© 2024 MICHIGAN PUBLIC
91.7 Ann Arbor/Detroit 104.1 Grand Rapids 91.3 Port Huron 89.7 Lansing 91.1 Flint
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Healthcare coverage suspended for city of Pontiac retirees

Andrew Jameson
/
Wikimedia

The city's emergency manager, Lou Schimmel, said the cuts are necessary to keep the city from municipal bankruptcy.

More from Chad Livengood of the Detroit News:

A state board Monday approved the Pontiac emergency manager’s plan to suspend health insurance coverage for nearly 1,000 city retirees for two years and give them $400 more a month in their pension checks in lieu of the benefit. Emergency Manager Louis Schimmel had threatened the specter of Pontiac plunging into bankruptcy if the state’s Emergency Loan Board didn’t approve the plan to cut the $6 million expense.

Retired firefighters and police officers will not be affected by the plan.

Back in April, Schimmel said cutting retiree healthcare would "structurally fix the city financially." 

Schimmel is expected to end his term as Pontiac's emergency manager at the end of this month. 

Mark Brush was the station's Digital Media Director. He succumbed to a year-long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in March 2018. He was 49 years old.