Ford Motor Co. retirees are feeling the pain of their former employer's ailing financial health.

The Dearborn automaker this month began informing its 50,000 white-collar retirees and spouses that they must for the first time pay a monthly premium for their health-care coverage.

The change, which takes place June 1, will also require them to pay higher co-payments for their prescription drugs, according to letters sent to retirees.

Retirees and their spouses can avoid a monthly premium, but will pay higher deductibles for medical costs and more for office visits, if they choose the automaker's low-end plan, called the Ford Medical Plan. The plan is administered through Blue Cross & Blue Shield.

More comprehensive plans with lower deductibles or better coverage, such as Health Alliance Plan or Unicare, will cost anywhere from $16 to $75 a month, depending on where the retiree lives and how many people are covered.

Retirees must choose a plan by April 30. If they don't act they will automatically default to the Ford Medical Plan. The moves don't affect Ford's active or retired hourly workers whose benefits are protected by UAW contracts.

Despite the move, Ford's retiree health-care benefits are generous compared to other companies. White-collar retirees at most other major U.S. corporations have long paid monthly premiums for their health-care coverage. General Motors Corp. and the Chrysler Group long ago began charging their white-collar retirees monthly fees for health-care coverage.

The move to shift more retiree health-care costs to the retirees is part of Ford's restructuring plan that it began late last year. Ford is also moving to eliminate 35,000 jobs worldwide, including 21,500 in North America.

Retirees were warned their health-care costs would increase in December 2001, but were not told the prescription co-pays would increase. The moves were announced at the same time as Ford's decision to eliminate a second shift at its Edison, N.J., assembly plant, suspend 401(k) matching contributions and eliminate merit increases for 2,200 managers.

Ford would not say how much the company would save by shifting health-care costs to retirees, but the December moves were expected to save Ford $300 million after taxes.

Ford spent $500 million in 2001 on white-collar retiree health care and says it expects that to rise 14 percent in 2002. Ford spent $2.4 billion on all health-care claims in 2001.

Ford's 45,000 active white-collar employees also saw their health-care costs increase this year. Their monthly premiums and prescription co-pay fees went up as of Jan. 1. Because of Ford's poor financial performance in 2001 -- it lost $5.5 billion -- the company's white-collar workforce also did not receive so-called Flex dollars, which is money the company gives employees to upgrade their health care, buy vacation days or use for other perks.

Ford said its health-care benefits for white-collar workers and retirees were still far better than most.

"Employees are still paying just 10 percent of their actual health-care costs. Ford is paying the other 90 percent," said Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari. "Other companies did this with premiums a long time ago. We were just kind of slow to do it."

GM began charging retirees a portion of their health-care costs in 1988. Chrysler followed in 1991.

GM's decision prompted a lawsuit, Sprague vs. GM, which spent 10 years in court and went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court left standing a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said GM could change health-care plans for its then-84,000 retirees and charge workers some portion of their health-care costs.

"All of the big companies have been looking for cost-saving measures with their retiree health-care costs," said Sal LoCicero, director of research with the American Society of Employers. "Our research shows that 70 percent of employers give retirees nothing, so Ford is still pretty generous, I think. No one wants to cut benefits, so they introduce premiums."

The benefits-consulting firm of Hewitt Associates in Lincolnshire, Ill., recently released a survey showing that most big employers plan to ask their workers to pay up to 30 percent of their health-care costs in 2002, up from 25 percent this year. For employees, that means paying up to $463 more in premiums -- or $17.80 per paycheck if they are paid every two weeks.

The cost to Ford's retirees varies.

For example, a retiree with one dependent spouse would pay a $20 monthly premium to belong to the Health Alliance Plan, $32 a month to belong to MCare or BlueCare Network, $50 a month for Care Choices HMO or Partnership Health, and $75 a month for UniCare. Gattari said $75 a month is the highest premium.

Prescription co-pay for most Ford retirees will rise from $5 for generic drugs and $10 for brand-name drugs to $7 and $15. In some states, such as Minnesota and New York, the prescription costs might be higher, according to the letter Ford sent retirees.

Contact JEFFREY McCRACKEN at 313-222-8763 or mccracken@freepress.com.