Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) — Detroit, struggling to provide its 700,000 residents with basic services, was sued by retired workers including police and firefighters who are seeking to block the bankrupt city from unilaterally cutting their health- care benefits.

The retirees said the city's decision to reduce funding of vested health-care benefits by 83 percent, starting in March, will force retirees to spend money out of pocket to replace the coverage, according to a filing today by representatives of the workers in federal bankruptcy court in Detroit.

Some of the retirees live near the poverty line, while others are older and incapable of returning to work or were injured in the line of duty, according to the filing. The retirees seeks to block the city from dropping its state and federal "contractual obligation" to provide them with health- care benefits, according to the filing.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.