BY DAVID P. WILLIS
BUSINESS WRITER

Some Lucent Technologies retirees are suffering from sticker shock after the company told them they will have to pay more for health insurance coverage for their dependents next year.

Freehold resident William J. Benden, who retired in 1992, said the cost of medical benefits for himself and his wife next year will rise to $347 a month in 2006, up from $275 a month. In 2002, his bill was $90 a month.

"I have watched the progression of it," said Benden, 72. "They are increasing it to a point where they don't have to pay for anything."

This year, Lucent, which provides health insurance coverage to about 125,000 retirees and their 75,000 dependents, stopped subsidizing health-care costs for dependents of management retirees who left the company on or after March 1, 1990, and who earned more than $65,000.

The coverage for dependents was made available to those retirees at group rates. Retirees opted to buy coverage for about 9,000 dependents, about 4.5 percent of the people the company covers, said Lucent spokeswoman Mary Ward.

"That 4.5 percent did see an increase in their premiums because there was a gap between what they paid in premiums and what it cost to provide them coverage in 2005," Ward said. "Consequently for 2006, we are increasing premiums to more accurately reflect how much is being spent on their health care."

The amount of the increase depends on the coverage selected, Ward said. "In some cases, it could be substantial, but it varies," she said.

But Ward said the majority of Lucent retirees and dependents will see "minimal or no increase in the cost of coverage." Retirees also recently received a total of about $14 million in refunds because the cost of their health-care was lower than anticipated this year, the spokeswoman said.

The Lucent Retirees Organization said the bad news came to about 30,000 management retirees. The monthly premiums for health care coverage will rise as much as 39 percent, the association said.

"Lucent executives rightly communicate how well the company is doing financially to Wall Street while, at the same time, requiring their retirees to take on an ever-increasing share of the cost of their well-earned health care benefits," said Ken Raschke, president of Lucent Retirees Organization.

A more-than-30-percent increase in health-care premiums is "unwarranted," Raschke said in a statement.

"This is morally wrong," he said. "We believe retirees earned through decades of their labor the right to health-care benefits at a reasonable cost."

The increases are just the latest decision to affect retirees, he said. Other measures included the elimination of the death benefit in February 2003. Later, the company stopped reimbursing retirees and spouses for Part B Medicare coverage.

Lucent's Ward said health-care costs are rising. The company has to balance the needs of retirees with Lucent's ability to work in a dynamic market, she said.

"We have to remain competitive," Ward said. "If we don't, there's nothing to be done."

Dover Township resident and retiree Andrew G. Jensen, 59, opted to go on his wife's plan; she works in the Toms River Regional school district.

"The prices are unbelievable," Jensen said. "It is no longer a benefit. It is getting costly."