Note 13 - Postretirement Medical Benefits |
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| Postretirement Health Coverage [Member] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block] | 13 . Postretirement Medical Benefits The Company provides lifetime medical and dental benefits upon retirement for certain employees meeting the eligibility requirements as of December 31, 1989 (“Plan 1”). Additional participants are not eligible to be included in Plan 1 unless they met the requirements on this date. There were 37 of such participants in Plan 1 at year-end 2016. During 2003, the Company implemented an additional postretirement health insurance program (“Plan 2”). Under Plan 2 , any employee meeting the service requirement of 20 years of full time service to the Company and is at least age 55 years of age upon retirement is eligible to continue their health insurance coverage. Under both plans, retirees not yet eligible for Medicare have coverage identical to the coverage offered to active employees. Under both plans, Medicare-eligible retirees are provided with a Medicare Advantage plan. The Company pays 100% of the cost of Plan 1. The Company and the retirees each pay 50% of the cost under Plan 2. Both plans are unfunded. Employees hired on or after January 1, 2016 are not eligible for benefits under Plan 2. The following schedules set forth a reconciliation of the changes to the benefit obligation and funded status of the plans for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015 .
The Company’s contributions were $309 thousand and $289 thousand for 2016 and 2015, respectively. The Company expects benefit payments of $416 thousand for 2017 . The following table provides disclosure of the net periodic benefit cost as of December 31 for the years indicated.
Assumed health care cost trend rates have a significant effect on the amounts reported for the health care plans. For measurement purposes, the rate of increase in pre-Medicare medical care claims costs was 6.5%, 6.0%, and 5.5% for 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively, then grading down by .25% annually to 4.75% for 2022 and thereafter. For dental claims cost, it was 5% for 2017 and thereafter. A 1% change in the assumed health care cost trend rates would have the following incremental effects:
The following table presents estimated future benefit payments in the period indicated.
Amounts recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income as of December 31, 2016 and 2015 are as follows:
The estimated costs that will be amortized from accumulated other comprehensive income into net periodic benefit cost over the next fiscal year are as follows:
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