Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

My 2018 Chevron pre-65 premiums (medical and dental) did not change from 2017.

Yes 16k for my PPO coverage (with wife)...afraid my friend that is what it costs! Pay less and get higher copay and deductibles. The only way that will ever go down is with a more efficient system (Canada and many other countries pay half that rate for at least as good average outcomes). But that would be Socialism!!!!...OMG! Those that claim they pay higher rates to cover the great unwashed are just wrong...they may well pay more in tax...but not directly as higher ins. rates. those that claim "free enterprise" will clean up our mess where not paying attention that last several decades!

I received my 2018 Chevron Pre-65 Open Enrollment package announcing the new premiums for next year. It’s incredible to believe these steep rip-off prices. For those of you under 65, please think twice before retiring. For those of you who get laid off, you have my sympathy. The 4 available health plan options for someone in the Greater Houston area, starting with the most expensive to the least; Medical HMO - HMO Blue TX, Medical PPO Plan, HDHP, and HDHP - Basic.

The monthly premiums for each Plan mentioned above are as follows:

You Only: $1150, $649, $478, $466

You + One Adult: $2298, $1296, $996, $933

You + Children or Other Dependent: $1595, $865, $644, $600

You + Family: $2745, $1514, $1142, $1067

These premiums for 2018 do not include any company contribution per month. Though let be it known, a 100% company contribution amount for a retiree does not surpass $105 per month.

Given the average one percenter makes over a million a year and as a class they own 42% of the total wealth do not expect me to cry for them. Their tax rate would only be directly comparable to the 99% if they were taxed on all gains year by year like normal wage earners. As it is, most of their income is shealded as "unrealized" gains and other dodges.

OK, Yes, I get it. So if a percentage of the population makes 20% of the profit. then it's fair to force them to pay 50% of the taxes for the entire country. And I suppose you would like someone to believe the false narrative that the top 20, 10 and 1% don't pay sales tax, property tax, License fees, etc. And go ahead and apply the failed Marxist argument that any of the fixed taxes or taxes liked to other things being a certain (smaller)percentage of what they earn is relevant- LOL!

I suppose that's what they mean by "liberal math" - LMAO!

The top 20% of income earners pay 84% of federal income taxes. Yes true. But then again the top 1% will pay nearly half of the federal income taxes". Why is this misleading? First the top 1% take more than 20% of the total profit, second when we count all taxes (income, property, sales, other...license fees and the like, the middle pays a higher effective rate on their earning, and three (and arguably the most important) is that salaried middle class pay taxes on their full income every year whereas the 1% only pay on their asset sales (thus year over year they have huge gains that remain untaxed, until the day they need to sell...making money on the money as it were). Only only time they need to actually settle their tax bill is when they die, but if Trump gets his way even that late game accounting will be scraped. It is now, and always has been, the the middle pays the bills because you can not get blood out of s stone (the poor) and the rich has the high price talent to side step the rules.

1zuib, pay no mind to the tired old argument from liberals who sponge off of society that you should go off the grid if you don't want to pay for them. That's an ages old "gotcha" that they have been using for years to freeload off others and try to make you feel guilty. Basically - if you resent high taxes - i.e. - subsidizing them, then you are the one who should sacrifice, even though you are the one paying the lion's share of the burden. Works pretty good, huh? oooh, you don't want to pay high taxes(for MY public services), then YOU should not use these services!! - LOL Yet the top 20% of earners pay roughly 84% of all federal income tax and about 45% pay non at all!! But it's YOUR fault, top 20-percenter!!! You need to leave !!!! You can't make this up. I'm tellin' ya! These guys are relentless in their greed for what you have earned and built. It's the liberal dystopia that they live in and think that you need to be there too.

1zxhf, I and many others (such as many O&G professionals at CVX) pay dearly for Social Security and Medicare and also are heavily taxed for the public utilities that you mentioned. Some people are not and in fact get those services virtually free, paid for by others. Wouldn't it make more sense that the people NOT paying for these services go off and live in the woods?

Your point?

@NYl0bIP-1zxhf, You are one of the children also, we see. I suspect there are more than two. No one is getting a "great deal" on the ACA, not the tax-payers, nor the insured , maybe the insurers, I suppose because of all the red tape and new organizations created to manage it who need to be paid. I have spoken at length to many of the personnel over the last several years and learned a great deal that your don't see published or in the media since I get insurance through the exchange. It's like the stereotypical extremely inefficient government run agency. Might as well just burn the money, you would get the same results

Well here we are months and hundreds of posts later and the same two children have made no progress in their debate. One is getting a great deal on ACA and the other isn't. Who cares? Is social security a handout? Fire and police service? Congress? The FAA? Move to the woods and do it all yourself.

Then go live your life your way, 1xgwt. Don’t mind how I choose to live mine.

1xyup, I understand that you mean you will take any government handouts available because you are a parasitic leech dependent upon others and have no pride nor conscience. Get to the back of the line with the rest of the bottom-feeders. You are not unique or anything special but quite common. Some of us chose a better life for ourselves.

I don’t care about “socialism”, “marxism” or whatever. I believe in “My-ism”. I’ll do what I want, when I want and get away with what I want.

@NYl0bIP-1xjdz, Socialism theory aside, Do you believe that individuals should be more free to keep what they earn, or should they be more and more subject to government taking more of it and giving it to those who did not earn it, for what boils down to the simple reason that the recipients have or earned less? It's pretty simple. Either you believe in the Marxist based principle of wealth redistribution or you do not. Let's not argue about which party is doing what, they both fail at many things. Some of us would just like to know how many people out there, including CVX and ex-CVX employees, believe that they have a right to what someone else has earned, for whatever reason.

That concept in itself is frightening. There has to be some limit to the basic materialization of - "I should have what you have because I need it, it doesn't matter that you earned it while I sat on my keister"

-1xwvm: not sure the data supports your socialism theory as that eould imply salaries were becoming more equal over time (as measured by direct or after redistribution, your choice). The facts show the opposite over the last several decades, the 1% are getting a greater and greater proportion of the total GDP. I am not sure how you gig your square idea into the round hole of reality... although I am all ears to hear how you calculate that!

Totally agree with you, 1slc. We are a country where most individuals care more about what they can keep. If we can get something for free, better yet. The government has learned that enticing the public with freebies in exchange for their votes has no reverse gear. They are all too aware that taking away candy from the masses is equal to political suicide. If you think this country is heading toward socialism, you are right. You haven’t seen nothing yet.

I am frustrated... And this thread does not help... It’s so obvious that our government struggles to make ANY kind of change today. There are so many things we need to tackle ASAP, the budget is out of control and we keep adding subsidies and free stuff almost with every new session of the House. While we publicly cherish capitalist values, in reality we are turning more and more socialist – more hand-outs, bigger role for the government, less freedoms, etc. I am not making this statement lightly, in my mind both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for this – both camps will not admit it but when it comes to their own constituents they are always willing to cave in and dole out more free stuff.

We as a nation have changed in a significant way. We are soft now, unwilling to make sacrifices and unwilling to push the envelope. Everyone is comfortable in their little bubble, everyone is focused on their own backyard ONLY and cares very little about the larger picture – about our society as a whole. We’ve crossed the Rubicon, and the state and the nation matter no more…

After 300 posts the information content of this thread is very low... mostly butthurt losers b--ching that others are getting something (amazingly even by some how admit to their own fingers in the pie). A few flickers of discussion on topic (in this case Health care) are quickly extinguished by the moderators ripping out half the posts and thus making any conversation incomprehensible. At first I assumed the moderators were just weeding the crapping, but reading through this thread just now that is clearly not the case (all the crap remains, with very little meat). That leads me to ponder just who is layoff.com and who are the moderators. There is surprisingly little info on this site in their front boiler. The only clue is moderators work in the middle of the night (USA time zones)...so who is on the other side of the Planet? ...could it be Russia?

1vzit, Government assistance is what the people receiving the ACA subsidies are getting. I can't believe that so many are in denial of that simple fact. They are receiving benefits paid for by others, that they never paid into their entire working life but yet they feel that they are in some bizarre way "entitled" to it. It's wealth redistribution in the purest sense of the definition. Somehow those receiving, this social welfare from others, many much less privileged than them, feel that it's "normal" or "acceptable" to steal from those less fortunate than them because Obama, an anti-American far-left "ruler by fiat" was involved in the legislation.

Much of the legislation enacted by Obama did not get a vote at all.

Stealing is stealing. Paint it any way you want.

Brag and act all smug, please do. Also in hell when you get there. just saying - LOL!

1vmbf, Yes you are correct, no figuring required. You are one and the same pathetic buttheaded loser as 1skrt, the angry petulant inbred who was embarrassed and schooled. Keep licking your wounds, moron. Maybe you can apply for some more gubmint assistance, since you can't stand on your own two feet, wimp. ...he he he.....

Keep trying to figure it out, 1utie, even though your original post that spurred that guy’s reply to you was by then deleted by the moderators.

1skrt, I have been trying to figure out your double negative senseless gibberish. Is that pig latin that you are trying to use there son? - LMAO!

-1swna: “No you don't” or “That would be a negative”. Which is it, you idiot? Can you communicate intelligently?

@1ryyy, Do I correctly detect a bit of jealousy behind your words of anger. Or is it the other way around?

@1rexw, Good for you getting something for nothing (for now) from your previous employer. That’s better than what I’m getting from the ACA (for the last 2 years) while paying less than $90. We all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch, so you getting your medical insurance at no cost is what? Maybe someone else is paying for it? Don’t be so smug, yourself @1rexw. You and I are both benefiting off others, but then, it’s all legal, isn’t it? Right!

McCain saves Obamacare again despite having campaigned to repeal it. I get to keep my ACA plan again into 2018 and hopefully though 2020 when I become 65 then hop over to the Chevron Retiree Medical Plan. Gotta love it. Right, 1qlnx?

@NYl0bIP-1qqiq, No thanks. I will continue to post as little or as frequently as I want on this thread about the various choices of health insurance for retirees and the destruction of a working, although not perfect, health care system and commandeering of ~1/6 of the US economy by the previous administration. I feel that this thread though highly opinionated has been quite enlightening and informative.

Who the hell is -1pamw? Must have been a post that got deleted by the moderators for some reason. In any case, let's give this thread a rest until November 1 and reconvene like -1nxdp said.

-1pamw: My god man, why would you care? Get a life!

1ppnm, "Don't believe" all that you want, it doesn't make my success any less real. In general, people cannot imagine the greater success of others for reasons related to their own difficulties achieving same.

Hey @1puzo, To each his own. BTW, I don't believe half of what you said, but I agree with your last sentence.

1ofkz, Why pay for something or even accept it free if I do not need nor want it nor does it improve my quality of life? I have everything I need and top notch heath care, from 'My Doctor" that I'm happy with and have been using for years. Remember " if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor"???? Well, that never bothered me because I can afford him, am not subject to Obamacare, and will die not only with a bigger nestegg than today (per FIRECALC) but with too much to spoil the kids with. I want them to know the meaning of hard work and success that you creat for yourself. A valuable life lesson. I am lining up charities for my inheritance to put in my will and getting my accountant to work that out now. Spoiling your kids after a certain point is tantamount to child abuse, in my opinion.

Thanks for taking out the trash, mods.

This society has Medicaid, Foodstamps, housing assistance and Welfare. That is for those in poverty. There is no need to steal from others to redistribute wealth any further within the middle and upper classes. .

If you want better health care, food, housing, etc. Work hard or harder. Everyone else did. You do too.

No, we don't need to ration health care and no, the Government shouldn't be in the business of "picking" or deciding in any shape, matter or form, who gets what kind, type or level of care. I don't care how close to death the person is. Every life's a life and is valuable. No one knows how long someone will live. That's what's makes us America and not the primitive underdeveloped Euro-socialist countries who ration health care heathens. Move if any of you guys don't like the land of the free and home of the brave. Don't ruin it for everyone else.

Hey @1odsf, You qualify for the ACA? Great. Take it and tell no one if you are so embarrassed. Christ, I live well and invest well and take advantage of the ACA too. Many of my friends who ask, I tell them quite proudly I'm on an ACA Plan that's just as good as the Chevron's PPO, only that I pay $82. I say "proudly" because it speaks to my astuteness in following prudent and diversified investing and to my keen attention to politics and tax law. Staying ahead of the curve is always an advantage.

@NYl0bIP-1oqdh, No more of a chance than your previous post that was incoherent (1nhwh, your previous post) made any sense, idiot. Keep dreaming for free stuff from others, though , snoflake. Maybe get a cup and stand on the corner shaking it. someone will feel sorry for you.

@NYl0bIP-1nxdp, Do you mean how much that your hand-outs, the welfare portion that you receive from others who work for a living changes, or how much that you. a pathetic parasitic sponge who is a leech on society, pays? That's two different things. In general, premiums go up a little each year for the paying, working class. Nothing like the amount that they went up the year of or right before the initiation of the ACA. That's because the ACA is paid for by others, those who pay normal premiums, Nothing dramatic for the people who actually pay for health care insurance. It's called capitalism, inflation and the American way. Thats because people who work for a living and pay their own way, and pay healthcare premiums, also subsidize the free-loaders using the ACA and it's subsidies. Some of you, however, feel special and feel that you should not have to contribute, and should get things for free or provided by others if you think they are too expensive. So what the "cost" is for a person getting it free (poor or playing poor) or subsidized (marginally poor or fake poor, fraudulent types) or full price ( those who support the thieves) - is irrelevant.

You are comparing someone who works for a living and is not a parasite to the cost for a free-loading subsidized parasite, a bottom feeder. The "fake" cost that the "food stamp" or health care recipient receives is irrelevant, not a real health care insurance premium or cost. What could you be possibly trying to prove, other than being smug, like many on this site and rubbing it in everyone's face that you are taking their hard-earned tax-dollars and didn't contribute? It's not the same as SS and Medicare, workers contributed to that their entire careers. I happen to have very good premium health insurance at a competitive cost that I can easily afford, no complaints - I prepared well. It's not Chevron's. I also qualify for the ACA subsidies, because of my dividend income type. Don't need nor want it, or handouts.

Remain a classless Dip$hit, loser, it's fitting.

@NYl0bIP-1nhwh, Please forgive my frankness, but I read your leftist/socialist/communist and completely biased post about health care, and not only do you not have a clue, but YOU sir, are an idiot. I will not waste my time with a detailed reply to your litany of falsehoods. Keep living in your fairy-tale liberal world of imagination and bashing anything republican, and anything anti-ACA. You keep doing that. That will make it better, solvent, and solve health care and your mental incapacity to see truth. About as much as will a vote for Bernie in 2020, which you will do without a doubt.

I foresee before too long, a group of American doctors and specialized surgeons will cut a deal with a neighboring country (Mexico, Belize or Panama) where their laws will allow them to set up a large hospital or several private practices and operate them along with private healthcare insurance companies that Americans can purchase for a much cheaper premium than they pay here in the United States. The reason for the lower cost? Easy - No frivolous lawsuits, no fraud and no intrusive over-regulations that only adds to the costs we get saddled with for getting treatment on US soil.