MILLINOCKET – Claude Martin of Millinocket, who retired from Great Northern Paper Co. more than three years ago, is scheduled to have surgery Monday to correct a condition that could become life threatening if left untreated.

Martin is waiting before incurring any major medical bills to see whether a U.S. bankruptcy judge in Bangor today will allow the struggling company to temporarily stop paying health insurance for retirees.

“I’m up in the air,” said Martin. “I’m frustrated. Have I got insurance or not? I’m waiting to see what the court is going to say.”

Company officials and union leaders gave conflicting answers to Martin’s question about insurance coverage on Tuesday.

Brian Stetson, GNP’s manager of governmental affairs, said the status of health care benefits remained unchanged for both active workers and retirees.

Union leaders, however, said company officials told them during a meeting Monday that all active employees still had health insurance, but company officials did not respond to a question about the status of retirees’ health insurance. Union leaders during recent meetings have also been telling members that when they sign paper work for medical services, they are obligated to pay for those services, even if their insurance does not pay.

Great Northern has a self-insured health care program covering about 1,130 active employees and the 677 people who have retired from the company since 1992. The plan is administered by HealthScope Benefits of Little Rock, Ark.

Asked Tuesday if current employees and retirees remained covered pending the judge’s decision, a woman at HealthScope Benefits said she had “no information we can give out.”

Creditors willing to loan GNP money to restart its paper mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket want the company to stop retirees’ health care benefits, union workers’ severance pay and the company’s match to the unions’ 401(k) retirement plan for 60 days. But union leaders say retirees’ health care must be honored and vowed to oppose the creditors’ proposal in court.

A lifetime promise

Martin, like most GNP retirees, said he was promised free company-paid health care for the rest of his life upon leaving the company.

In August 1999, Bowater sold Great Northern and the rest of its Maine assets to Inexcon of Maine for $250 million. As part of the deal, the new owners assumed about $130 million in employee-related liabilities, including retirees’ health insurance. At the time of the sale, Bowater offered eligible employees an early retirement incentive package that provided free health care.

Martin had just turned 55 when Bowater made its offer and had more than 36 years of service with the company, most on a job he loved as an instrumentation technician. He said retiring was a tough decision to make. “Do I want to go now or do I stay?” he said, recalling the decision. “Financially, I was not ready to go.”

Then, workers were paying about $21 a week for family health care coverage, but Martin suspected the rates would go up. Today, employees pay $181 a week for family health insurance.

Martin and his wife, Cecile, talked it over. “We did a lot of praying about it and then made the decision to take the retirement because of the free health care,” he said.

He retired from Great Northern on Aug. 7, 1999, and went to work for Border Electric of Calais on Sept. 29, 1999, as an electrician and instrumentation technician. “I needed the money,” he said. Martin, who is still employed by the Calais-based company, said he has worked only two days in the past six months. “There is no work,” he said.

About a year ago, Martin developed gastrointestinal problems and about a month ago was diagnosed as needing corrective surgery. With the surgery he said his problem would be resolved, but without surgery, his problem could become life threatening. “It should be now rather than later,” said Martin. So he is scheduled for the procedure, estimated to cost $10,000, at Millinocket Regional Hospital on Monday.

“I feel frustrated and I feel angry that they made me promises that they are not keeping,” said Martin, referring to GNP. “I’m being stabbed in the back. They are stealing this away from us. It looks like they are so greedy that they don’t care about the little guy.”

Martin said he was disgusted to think that the current owners of the company wanted people with lots of vacation time and other benefits to leave so they could make a go of it, yet it still isn’t a viable business and many of the assets – a massive hydroelectric system and thousands of acres of timberlands – have been sold. “Bowater did me a disservice by selling my medical insurance to Lambert Bedard [GNP’s owner],” he said.

Now, Great Northern’s bankruptcy filing is making Martin nervous about having the surgery.

A horrible mess

Cecile Martin, a veteran registered nurse at Millinocket Regional Hospital, said she tried to get the couple on the hospital’s insurance, but can’t until she has a letter from GNP saying her husband’s benefits have been terminated.

Martin said a medical travel slip from November she submitted to HealthScope has not been paid. When Claude Martin called, he was told there was no problem with the claim, but they did not have any money to pay out because GNP had not paid them.

Cecile Martin said that when she checked on the status of claims for services provided by MRH to the couple for the months of November and December, she found they had not yet been paid. She said it could be because there had not been enough time to process the claims.

Responding to the unions’ concerns, U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud and state Sen. Stephen Stanley arranged for union leaders to meet Tuesday with an official of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration. Union leaders asked the federal official for a thorough review of the company’s health insurance program.

Martin said she and her husband are fortunate because she has a job. But now she is wondering how long that will last, because the hospital could be in jeopardy if GNP closes.

She said if she has to pay for health insurance the only way she could do it is to stop putting money in her 403(b) retirement plan, which is similar to a 401(k) plan. “It is the only source of retirement I have because there is no pension plan at the hospital,” she said.

The couple described the situation as a horrible mess, and not just for them.

“These people are not all going to get up and leave Millinocket,” said Cecile Martin.

“All this is going to do is dump a whole mess of people on the welfare rolls of the state of Maine,” she continued. “What you are going to have in Millinocket, East Millinocket and Medway is a whole bunch of people who are suddenly going to be on food stamps. That is going to put a horrible crunch on the whole state, which is already in financial trouble.”