Detroit retirees fight for health benefits

(Bloomberg) — Retired Detroit public workers have sent dozens of handwritten letters to the federal judge overseeing the city’s record municipal bankruptcy.

In many, the retirees are pleading with the judge to protect their health benefits.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court has posted more than 90 objections to Detroit’s proposed “plan of adjustment.” Each of the objections is one or two pages long. In each, a retiree asks Judge Steven Rhodes to reject Detroit’s proposal.

Detroit wants to cut the retirees’ benefits in an effort to reduce an $18 billion mountain of liabilities.

“How in the world can anyone be so ruthless and uncaring about other people and their future,” wrote Geraldine Chatman, who said she worked 39 years for the city. “Please if you would only think of the number of people who will be hurt by this effort.”

Under the proposal by Detroit’s emergency financial manager, Kevyn Orr, general workers would be forced to accept as little as 66 percent of their current pensions while police and firefighters would get at least 90 percent.