A Kaiser Family Foundation survey of steel company retirees and dependents who had lost health benefits as a result of bankruptcies of their companies found that 74% of respondents younger than 65 obtained new health insurance but at a significant disruption to savings and retirement plans. Forty-nine percent of retirees of LTV Corporation and Bethlehem Steel who lost health coverage after the bankruptcies said they or a spouse delayed retirement in order to afford new health insurance, and a quarter of those younger than 65 said they had to dig deep into savings to pay the premiums. But even with new health insurance, 29% of respondents younger than 65 said they postponed hospital care and 49% went without physician care due to cost. More than half of Medicare-eligible respondents without supplemental coverage skipped medications, and 28% did not get recommended hospital treatment because of concerns over cost. Survey respondents also reported being less satisfied with their new health insurance than they were with their retiree health benefits.
