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Court Battle Continues to Restore Rx Benefit for Maryland State Retirees

March 2nd, 2021 by WCBC Radio

The battle has been under way for several years and a case against the state of Maryland is now in court, but 63-year-old Ken Fitch is not discouraged as he continues the fight to restore the prescription drug benefit program for state retirees. Fitch, 63, who retired from the Maryland Department of General Services in 2012 after more than 26 years, received a letter from the Department of Budget and Management in 2018, informing him and thousands of similarly situated retirees that a long-forgotten pension reform was now kicking in – and kicking him off the state’s prescription drug benefit program and onto Medicare Part D. At first he took his message to social media- connecting with other retirees and hearing their stories. Then he took to the courts, filing a lawsuit to challenge the benefit change that has resulted in an injunction that preserves the retiree benefits while the broader case continues to wind through court. Fitch, on WCBC’s “Dave Norman Show” this week said it was the benefits to state workers alone that drew him to his job in the first place; he left a higher paying job in the private sector to move to state government in the late 1980s…