Amy Robinson:
Today's SWAPA number is 402. That's the dollar amount that SWAPA members pay for their long-term and short-term disability per month.
Mike Panebianco:
Today on the show, we're going to talk to SWAPA pilot Matt Minguela about his experience on disability as well as benefits committee member Tony Caparella, to give us more information on what is lacking in your benefits, what you can do to make the process easier, and what needs to change to be competitive in today's marketplace.
Amy Robinson:
I'm Amy Robinson.
Mike Panebianco:
And I'm Mike Panebianco. And here's our interview with Matt and Tony.
Amy Robinson:
So Matt, let's go ahead and start with your story. Go ahead and tell us what happened.
Matt Minguela:
Sure. My story expands over a period about two years. It started back in February of 2020. I was working out at my local gym that day. I felt a little off. I felt like whatever I did in the gym, I felt really winded. My heart would beat a lot faster than normal, and I decided to leave thinking that maybe I took too much caffeine or pre-workout that morning. So I went to my local pharmacy to see if maybe I could get my blood pressure checked. Maybe that's what I was feeling. And when I walked into the pharmacy, that's when I had my first, what I call them now, episodes. So I basically collapsed to the floor. I almost passed out. I got tunnel vision. I felt like my heart was beating out of my chest. They ended up calling 911. They did a few tests.
They said I was completely fine. I probably had some type of dehydration and off I went. So these episodes would actually continue for the next year off and on. Anytime in the day they would be sporadic. One day a week, one day a month. I remember just going out to get the mail and I would get to the mailbox, bam, it'll hit me like a ton of bricks. It was tunnel vision, shortness of breath. I almost collapsed to the floor and it was getting scary because it would even happen at work.
I would get to the airplane and do all my pre-flight originating flow and I was feeling completely fine. And then the captain would call before I start [inaudible 00:02:33] a checklist and I'd say, I'm sorry, captain, I can't go. But every time I would go to the emergency room, everything was completely fine. He always kind of discharged me, went on my way. So I end up booking an appointment with a cardiologist. He ran every test you can ever imagine, EKG, echocardiogram, stress tests, nuclear stress tests, halter event monitor, everything, CT scans and everything was completely normal. And I would bring this information to my AME and my AME had no clue either. He had nothing to offer me. And based off the emergency room notes of dehydration, he said basically just focus on better hydration.
Amy Robinson:
About for how long was this going on? This was going on for a period of months or a year?
Matt Minguela:
This whole thing spanned about a period of a year and a half. So I knew something deep down inside was wrong. So I started to research SWAPA Benefits, looking up what type of short-term disability plan I was on, what type of loss of license. And I remember beating myself up because I was hired in February of 2019, and this is happening a year later in February 2020. I wasn't able to change my loss of license to non-taxable until open enrollment that next year. So I was a little nervous that something was going on medically with me. No one knew what it was, and I was unable to change the lost license and non-taxable, which is what I wanted. And when I started getting the episodes more and more frequently, I remember going to the emergency room and the doctors are now starting to say I was suffering from some type of anxiety.
They think maybe I had some panic attacks and I didn't understand where they were coming from because I thought in my life things were great. I just finished my first year of Southwest Airlines that December, my wife surprised me the day after Christmas that we were expecting our first baby. So things are great in my life. So to get diagnosed from an emergency room doctor with anxiety just kind of blew my mind at that point. So life kept going. My episodes became less frequent, which was a great thing. And then on May 26, my wife woke me up at 2:30 in the morning. I was supposed to start a four-day PM reserve block that day, and she woke me up and she said that her feet were throbbing. She can kind of feel every pulse. And before she woke me up, she had checked her blood pressure and her blood pressure was elevated.
It was like 170 over 95. So we decided to go to the local emergency room. They took her in right away and they had diagnosed her with severe preeclampsia. So the next day, the maternal fetal medicine doctor came in and gave us the devastating news that our baby girl was 26 weeks old, but she was measuring the size of a 23-week baby. She had stopped receiving nutrients from my wife's placenta three weeks prior and that my wife's blood pressure was so high that it was causing stress to the baby's heart because it was back flowing into the heart. So they gave my wife about 48 hours tops until they would have to perform an emergency C-section. So devastating news for us because the pregnancy fire was completely normal, so it was obviously traumatic unexpected thing for us. We ended up getting transported to the hospital that my wife was supposed to deliver at, and 48 hours later, our little girl, Avery was born.
She was 26 weeks old. She was measuring 1 lb 2.9 ounces and she was only 11 inches long, so she was really tiny. We were there for four days in the hospital. And then after the four days, my wife gets discharged, we go home and as soon as we get home, the hospital calls and informs us that Avery had developed a spontaneous bowel perforation. So she had a small hole in her intestines, she needed emergency surgery. And unfortunately in that hospital they didn't do that type of surgery. So they had scrambled a flight transport team and brought her to Children's Hospital Philadelphia. We stayed in the Children's Hospital Philadelphia for 201 days, which is a little over six months. We were there every day, eight to 10 hours, sometimes longer. Since it's a drive from our house, we end up staying at the Ronald McDonald in Philadelphia.
And I remember it kind of being a full circle moment for myself because I remember parking the car at the Ronald McDonald garage and I look up and it was a painting of a Southwest Airlines jet taking off into downtown. So I thought that was kind of neat. It kind of reminded me where I needed to be at that point. So I had to be there for my wife and I still had a job to do. The first person I called at that point was my chief to inform them like, hey, this is what happened. I took the first month off completely. He informed me that being Baltimore based, there's a Maryland Flexible Leave Act that allows me to utilize my sick time to take care of a sick loved one home. And that's what I did. As the sole provider, I kind of felt myself in an awkward spot because I only had sick time to burn and I needed to be in this ICU setting with my daughter and my wife.
So I was only flying like 60 or 70 trips a month just to break even, just to pay the bills. I ended up giving SWAPA a call and SWAPA had informed me of the Pilot Relief fund. So I reached out to SWAPA in May. It was a super easy process, just filled out an application, answered a few questions, and I think in a day or two, I was approved for the grant of $2,500, which paid for a mortgage that month and some. We were super grateful for that. Took a big load off stress to allow me to stay in the NICU a little longer. [inaudible 00:08:30] to worry about our mortgage that month. When I was in the NICU, the way I would deal with stress was just every morning go out for a long run or a walk. And in June of that year, I went out for a run that morning and I got about a mile into the run, and I hadn't had an episode in a few months at this point.
And then bam, it hit me again about a mile in. And when EMS came, the paramedic told me, based off your heart rate and your blood pressure, I would look into supraventricular tachycardia. And at that point, I never heard of it. They took me in an ambulance to the local emergency room and I spent eight hours to, once again, be told that I had anxiety and I should seek therapy. That day, I went home and researched what the paramedic had told me, and I also ended up buying a portable EKG chest strap that would record my heart rhythm because I was determined to figure out what exactly was happening because I knew it wasn't anxiety. There was nothing in my life... Obviously with the baby it was very stressful, but that doesn't explain the stuff that was happening before the baby was born.
Things were going along in the NICU, but I tell you one thing what was very stressful was the medical bills. They were coming in faster than we can open them because to have a child in a NICU was extremely expensive. Avery, her entire stay in the NICU was just shy of $5 million. It was a huge, huge bill. And I reached out to SWAPA because I didn't know what to do because a lot were covered, but a lot weren't covered. And being on the regular plan, it was quite difficult to find time to call the insurance companies to try to overturn something that was coded incorrectly. And that's when SWAPA had advised me of Resolute Healthcare and. Kerrey Hunt. I contacted her, and I'll tell you one thing, Kerrey was a godsend for us because she helped us tremendously. And to this day, she continues to help us overturn deny claims.
There were a dozen of claims that were denied, coded incorrectly. Her transport rides, even my transport rides from what I was going through myself, a lot of them were either denied or coded incorrectly. And we don't really know how much Kerrey had actually saved us, but we would estimate probably somewhere between 75 to almost a hundred thousand dollars in claims that were coded incorrectly that she was able to call the insurance company on our behalf and get those overturned. So Kerrey, to this day, we keep close contact and she helped us more than I can tell you. In December of that year, things were looking great for Avery. She was finally off the ventilator and things were looking good. And once again, I went out for my morning workout that morning and it happened again. I had a long episode. I was very frustrated. At this point, this was my longest episode I've had so far.
Out of frustration, I actually waited till the episode went through. I walked myself to the Ronald McDonald House and then I had them call me an Uber. And then I got Uber'd to Hospital of University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And when I got there, I was finally taken seriously, and I was admitted because my heart actually showed some signs of damage. So my troponin was elevated and they admitted me for observation and I showed them the arrhythmia that I had captured on the monitor I'd purchased myself. And that day I was officially grounded. I was finally diagnosed with something that paramedic this entire time was correct, even though I'd seen, I think, six different cardiologists. And I went to the ER about seven or eight times throughout this entire experience, I was officially diagnosed with SVT or supraventricular tachycardia, and that's a fancy term for a fast heart rate.
So my heart would beat between 250 to 300 beats per minute, and that would happen spontaneously. I had no control over it. It did it when it wanted to. And I found myself in a very difficult position at this point because I had spent the last six months being there in the NICU with my wife and daughter burning all my sick time. But now I had lost my medical. I don't know if I'd ever be able to fly again. I had no idea how long my medical would take to get back. I had contacted AMAS through the help of SWAPA once again. AMAS had educated me a little bit on my condition and advised me to get a cardiac ablation, and that's what the FAC [inaudible 00:13:06] curative measure. I took their advice. Then I went to my electrophysiologist, and in December of that year, I was set up and completed a successful ablation for my arrhythmia.
And AMAS, I couldn't tell you how organized they were for me. There's no easy way to say this, but when you're out on medical, especially with a cardiac issue, it's a lot of paperwork and it's a lot of work to try to get your medical back. But they made it as seamless as possible. Whenever I'd call them, they'd educate me on whatever I needed. They would have an answer, they'd call me back the same day. So they helped me tremendously throughout that entire experience. I was out of sick time, so I had to wait for the elimination period. So basically I got little to no pay because I had little to no sick trips. And then I went out on a short-term disability for the next six months, and that paid just north of $5,000 per month, and I had to make that work with our situation.
And after 120 days of short-term disability, you get a nice letter from Southwest Airlines that says that you have been terminated from your medical benefits, but you have the right to pay for COBRA premiums. When I got that, I reached out to SWAPA Benefits right away, and they had formed me that SWAPA does reimburse you every quarter for these benefits, which is great. The only caveat I will mention is Southwest Airlines only accepts a direct deposit form of payment. So you get reimbursed every quarter, but you have to put that money up front, which for a family of three is about $2,200 per month. So $6,600 per quarter you have to put up front to get reimbursed for that. So if you don't have that money available, that can put you in a tough situation. After nine months, I've received my good to go letter from the FAA after many different doctor's visits and different diagnostic testing and whatever the FAA wanted and through the advice of AMAS.
After that, that was good. Everything checked out. Unfortunately, Murphy's Law, the week before I was supposed to get my medical back, I had my AME appointment set, we were running a little late for my daughter's doctor's visit, and I picked up her car seat the wrong way and I ended up tearing my meniscus and my kneecap. So I had to get a surgery, which puts me out a little longer than I should have been. But I was out for a little shy of 18 months. A little unlucky, two years for sure, but I'm glad everything worked out and I'm able to share my story.
Amy Robinson:
So you were a fairly new pilot when this happened to you, did you end up calling Southwest or did you call SWAPA first?
Matt Minguela:
Right when it happened, I called Southwest to inform my chief just because I had a four-day reserve block, but the very next call was made to SWAPA because I knew I was in a situation that I needed help more than the Company could offer.
Mike Panebianco:
Matt, you have a very unique situation. Many families deal with either one issue or another, one for themself or one for a family member, and here you were dealing with both. When you called, you told Amy that you called SWAPA right after you called your chief pilot. Did we make it clear to you how your benefits would work and if you had anything you wanted it to do differently, what would you have changed?
Matt Minguela:
When I reached out to SWAPA, particularly SWAPA Benefits, because at that time I was so focused on just surviving, just kind of getting through the financial part and to try to get my medical back, SWAPA Benefits had made it very clearly... Every time I had a question, they answered me right away, especially any kind of medical problem I had. What I would do differently is I would probably ask more about Project LIFT. When I look back, I think we could probably use and took advantage of that program. Looking back at it, I think that's one resource I probably should have used more.
Mike Panebianco:
Were you aware that loss of license was a Company program and long-term disability was SWAPA? Did everyone make that clear to you? Because a lot of pilots when they first interact with their benefits on a serious level, they're not quite aware of that.
Matt Minguela:
I was not aware that they were two different programs run by two different organizations. I'll be honest, I thought it was all Southwest Airlines and I had no idea that SWAPA was the short-term disability and loss of license with a Company program. I was not aware of that.
Mike Panebianco:
So when you filed for loss of license, what was your experience in dealing with that? I assume that you were through your first year because in the first year, we don't have loss of license.
Matt Minguela:
The process for following with Harvey Watt wasn't too bad. I didn't have a bad experience. The only thing I would say about Harvey Watt is they had a tremendous amount of turnover. So I felt like I had a different case manager every month, and I would have to re-explain my situation almost every month what was going on. So I felt like the organization wasn't there in that aspect, but that's targeting the Company itself.
Amy Robinson:
So Mike, you mentioned that you don't have loss of license in your first year. Tony, does SWAPA have anything that covers that?
Tony Caparella:
Yeah, absolutely. So loss of license is not offered to our new hire pilots until they finish their probationary year. They're automatically enrolled into short-term disability and long-term disability, which lasts up to three years for our new hires. Once they come off probation, that long-term disability will go on top of loss of license and extend out till your 65 years of age, whereas loss of license is good for five years or half the time you've been with Southwest.
Amy Robinson:
So there is a program that does cover our new hires? Because we do have a lot of them.
Tony Caparella:
Absolutely. It's SWAPA, short-term disability, and long-term disability through MetLife that covers all our pilots.
Mike Panebianco:
So Matt, you mentioned Kerrey Hunt. Did you know about Kerrey Hunt before all of this started happening and what was your experience with Resolute Healthcare when you got in touch with Kerrey?
Matt Minguela:
Kerrey was amazing. I had a little knowledge that Kerrey existed, I guess, but that was through social media and I had no idea what type of help she was, and I honestly had no idea that that was a SWAPA only thing as well. And then when I contacted SWAPA Benefits, they had given me Kerrey's number, which I didn't have access to. And I can't say enough good things about Kerrey and her team. When you're in the setting of the NICU, I literally would just get the statement in the mail, take a picture of it, email it to Kerrey and Kerrey would take care of everything else. So the amount of stress she takes off in that situation is uncomprehendable because that's the last thing that you want to think about.
Mike Panebianco:
That's a great testimonial to Resolute. Tony, can you give a 30-second pitch on Resolute Healthcare? How do our pilots interact with them? How do we secure their services for our pilots?
Tony Caparella:
So basically, Kerry Hunt takes care of our pilots if they have an issue with a bill. So instead of having to go through it yourself, you give Kerrey your bill and she will tell you that you're overpaying and that Aetna or Cigna needs to cover more, and she'll actually go through that process to make sure they're not being overcharged. Kerrey Hunt will also help out with a denial from Aetna or Cigna. So if a pilot gets denied a certain procedure, she can actually go through to the insurance companies and override that denial.
Amy Robinson:
So Matt, what would you tell someone who might be going through something similar?
Matt Minguela:
To anyone that would be going through something similar through what I experienced is to utilize all your resources, specifically on the SWAPA end. A lot of times when I would contact the Company, a lot of times it was a dead end. My chief was very helpful, so I'll give him credit to that. But when it came to other things like financial assistance, it was always a dead end with the Company. So I would tell whoever out there would be going through the situation, seek through SWAPA as much as you can to kind of guide yourself and all the tools that SWAPA has to offer.
Mike Panebianco:
What was it like to be on disability under this contract?
Matt Minguela:
Under this contract to be on disability, it had its pros, but it definitely had its cons, specifically when it came to utilizing your sick trips to pay for the gap in your short term disability pay. I think that was probably the most stressful part of the entire experience the first six months since I had been in a unique situation and I burned my sick time. And I feel like our current contract is predicated on padding your low income on short-term disability with sick trips. But in my situation, I had thought I was doing the right thing and I still think I did the right thing by staying in the NICU and burning through sick trips when I had to be there. But in this current contract, that was probably the most stressful portion is the low income that you get for the first six months and the lack of sick trips that I had to make that in my favor, it just wasn't there for me.
Amy Robinson:
So Tony, for our members who don't necessarily have not gone on disability or they're not familiar with the process, can you please walk them through step by step? How does it work for them?
Tony Caparella:
So the first phone call usually is to the chief pilot to let them know that you're going out on disability. The next phone call is to SWAPA and to [inaudible 00:22:34] Medical Benefits Committee, just so we can walk that pilot through what's going to happen. There's a 30-day elimination period for short-term disability. If you have Plan A, that 30 day elimination period doesn't matter how much sick trips you have, plan B, you have to exhaust your sick trips even though there's a 30-day elimination period. So if a pilot has 500 sick trips, they're not going to even touch short-term disability for approximately five months. For short-term disability plan A, no matter how many sick trips you have in your bank, it starts 30 days after date of disability. At that point, you're going to receive $1,500 a week tax-free, and you can use your sick bank up to 105 trips on top of that per month or as low as 47.5 trips on top of that short-term disability.
Once short-term disability ends month six, month seven loss of license will kick in if you have less than 600 sick trips. If you have more, then loss of license will start at your sick bank divided by 95. We don't need to get into the nitty-gritty of it, but if you have 1600 sick trips, loss of license from the company won't kick in until month 17. Whereas long-term disability through MetLife, through SWAPA's long-term disability will kick in no matter what month seven for every pilot, and that maxes out at 13,500 tax-free.
Loss of license is always taxed unless you choose through medical open enrollment Southwest in November to have that loss of license tax-free. Now, Southwest, just like Matt was saying, about 30 days after dat of disability, you're going to receive the letter in the mail and it's going to say, hey, your medical benefits expire and you have the option to do COBRA. Well, the pilot on the date that that medical expires, pilot has to go into Southwest SWA Life and elect COBRA and pay a monthly premium for that medical. Could be anywhere from $800 to $2,500 a month out of the pilot's pocket. Whereas every quarter they send those receipts to Benefits at SWAPA and we reimburse that a hundred percent.
Amy Robinson:
So as Matt mentioned earlier, they're required to put that out of pocket and then get it reimbursed after the fact.
Tony Caparella:
Yes, that COBRA lasts 18 months, and then once that COBRA ends is when you get your free medical through the Company, through Southwest, for approximately two years. Now, after that two years is up through the supplemental plan, then you go on to a plan called VEBA, which is through the union again, and the union then pays for medical for that pilot and their family until they're 65.
Amy Robinson:
So that is not covered by the Company, that is a union sponsored program?
Tony Caparella:
Correct. It's a union sponsored program until the pilot reaches the age of 65. You get about two, two and a half years depending on how long you've been here at Southwest of free medical when you're out on disability. Other than that, it's reimbursed completely by SWAPA.
Amy Robinson:
Is there anything else that happens to our pilots during this disability journey?
Tony Caparella:
Yeah, so after the 30 days, Southwest will take you out of the [inaudible 00:26:06] system, which now our pilots can't use KCM, they can't jump seat and they can't use ID 90.
Amy Robinson:
What if they need to travel for healthcare?
Tony Caparella:
Well, they still have non rev privileges until their sick bank is exhausted plus 12 months, and that 12 months was just an agreement through Southwest. So if a pilot's been out for longer than a year or two, he's going to lose non rev privileges for himself or herself and their family. So now they have to go buy and purchase a ticket through Delta, United American, Southwest, whatever, to get to their Mayo Clinic appointments. And this could be a weekly or a monthly appointments that they're going to.
Mike Panebianco:
Tony, how do our pilots know if they are on tax-free loss of license? How do I find out?
Tony Caparella:
Good question. Majority of our pilots have no idea what they have, and that's the most important thing about this podcast right now is just knowing what you have, not necessarily how it works. That's our job to help you out. So on your paycheck on the left-hand side, you're going to go under imputed income and you're going to see SWAG imputed income. Under SWAG, if you do not see tax-free LOL, that means you have the taxable version of loss of license through the company. And again, you can change that in open enrollment November when you do your medical open enrollment.
Amy Robinson:
So what's the difference between taxable and non-taxable? What does that mean to our pilots?
Tony Caparella:
So what that means is if loss of license maxes out $11,500 a month, they will tax that 11,500. So you're not receiving 11.5, you're receiving approximately $8,500. Whereas if you sign up for non-taxed LOL, you're paying the pre-tax on that just like you are with SWAG. So when you go out on disability, you're going to receive that loss of license tax-free.
Amy Robinson:
So that covers your loss of license, but how do our pilots know if they have short-term and long-term disability? Where can they find that answer for themselves?
Tony Caparella:
On the right-hand side of your pay stub, you're going to look midway down on the right-hand side and you're going to see STD and LTD right below it. The amount of STD, short-term disability, through SWAPA, on the right-hand side, if it says $106 and 21 cents, you have plan A, which means no matter what, after a 30-day elimination period, you can use your sick bank on top of the short-term disability. If you see $67 and 74 cents taken out, then you have short-term disability plan B, which means you have to exhaust all your sick bank before starting short-term disability. Below that, you'll see LTD and LTD gets taken out on the fifth and 20th pay stub, and it's a $1.46 for every a hundred dollars earned to a max of $295 and 64 cents a month. Now short-term disability and long-term disability through the union is always tax-free. There's no version of a non-taxed, it's always tax-free.
Mike Panebianco:
So we focused a lot on the disability programs. I want to shift just a second because one of the things that we don't like to think about, and we almost don't even address it as much, is life insurance. When you get that letter, it talks about your medical benefits, but what about your life insurance benefits and why is this a gotcha for a lot of our pilots as well?
Tony Caparella:
So a couple sentences after that letter stating your medical expires, there's a sentence in there that says, your life insurance policy will expire three months after that date, which means if a pilot wants the life insurance through Southwest, they're going to have to port that life insurance policy from Southwest and pay it on their own, and that's going to be anywhere from a thousand to $2,000 a month.
Amy Robinson:
What happens if they don't port their life insurance and then let's say they pass away?
Tony Caparella:
So if they don't port their life insurance, then they have no life insurance through Southwest, the pilot loses that life insurance.
Amy Robinson:
And you said that's an additional cost of how much per month?
Tony Caparella:
It depends on the price of your policy, but it could be anywhere from a thousand to $2,000 a month. So I have a lot of pilots out there fighting for their lives right now with cancer or what have you, and they're paying out of their pocket 1500 to $2,000 a month to keep that life insurance policy.
Amy Robinson:
Plus, like we also talked about, in addition to that, it could be up to $2,500 a month in medical costs as well, correct?
Tony Caparella:
Absolutely. So you're looking at a pilot on disability could be paying it upwards of $4,000 a month to maintain his life insurance policy and COBRA.
Mike Panebianco:
So Tony, we've talked a lot about determining what we have, what it costs, tax-free, non-tax, some of the pilots are still asking themselves like, hey, do my family members get covered by these programs when I'm out on disability? Are they still able to go to the doctors and have their medical bills paid? Everything's covered?
Tony Caparella:
Absolutely. All the family members are always covered. Even during COBRA or the supplemental plan C or even our VEBA plan. They're always covered.
Amy Robinson:
What are some of the benefits that you believe we need to get changed and covered in this next contract?
Tony Caparella:
Ultimately, we are looking at Southwest covering all of our pilot's medical until they're 65 like every other company out there, as well as loss of license to cover our pilots till they're 65 and not just an arbitrary number of five years or half the time you've been with Southwest. And also to have Southwest cover short-term disability. Because currently right now you're looking at every single pilot that we have on the line is paying approximately $500 a month just for short-term, long-term and tax-free loss of license.
Mike Panebianco:
How do the benefits that SWAPA members our Southwest pilots have, how do they compare with what's industry normal? A lot of people want to know why we're willing to strike. And for me, this is one of those items that I will definitely hold a sign and stand on the street and shut it down.
Tony Caparella:
If it weren't for SWAPA, we would have the lowest medical and long-term disability, short-term disability coverage in the entire industry. When SWAPA adds short-term disability, long-term disability and medical coverage for the pilot and their family until they're 65, we ultimately have probably the highest, but it comes at a cost, and that's out of our paychecks.
Mike Panebianco:
Southwest Airlines says that it is a career destination airline for pilots. How many of the comparable airlines that we are competing for the best recruits, trying to compete for them, not only compete for them to get them to come here, but to get them to stay here, how do our benefits weigh up to those competitors?
Tony Caparella:
Not very good. And it's very limited with just a couple years of medical coverage for the pilot and their family if they go out on disability and loss of license for five years, whereas the other companies extend out to age 65.
Mike Panebianco:
And do any of those companies pay for their own benefits? Are they funded by the Company?
Tony Caparella:
All the other airlines actually pay for all of these benefits for their pilots.
Amy Robinson:
Are there any other pitfalls, concerns, things that pilots are seeing or going through that Matt didn't talk about? What is the thing that you would most want our pilots to take away from his story?
Tony Caparella:
I think it's most important to have a large sick bank so that way you're financially not hurting when you go out on disability. It's also extremely important to know what benefits you actually have, and that's to look on your pay stub to see if you have that tax-free loss of license and make sure that you have the short term disability plan and long-term disability plan. And that's just a quick look at the pay stub to make sure that that's what you have. And if you're confused at all, just call us.
Mike Panebianco:
Thank you to Matt for taking the time to talk with us today about his experiences and tell his story. And thank you to Tony for giving us some insights from the committee in the trenches with our members.
Amy Robinson:
As always, we do want to hear from you. If you have any podcast ideas or subject matter experts that we haven't heard from before, please let us know and drop us at line at [email protected].
Mike Panebianco:
Finally, today's bonus number is 2,500. That's how much money a pilot will pay for their family to be covered under COBRA to keep their medical insurance per month after going out on disability. That's a lot of money out of pocket for someone who is on a limited income. As we mentioned earlier, SWAPA is hoping to solve that as well as many other issues with our medical benefits programs in our next CBA.