When Vera Terrell retired from her clerk job with Sprint in 1993, she thought she would be set for life when it came to insurance.

Terrell, now 73, stayed with the company for 23 years. The Charlottesville resident retired with $25,000 in life insurance and the ability to keep her prescription drug plan and health insurance through Sprint.

But Terrell won’t have the perks much longer. Embarq, which split off from Sprint a year and a half ago, sent a letter to its 14,000 retirees July 26 telling them their health and life insurance policies would change significantly by 2008, ending some coverage to retirees.

Some of the roughly 100 Embarq retirees in Charlottesville are now writing to local political figures, including U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, R-Alexandria, and 5th District Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount, to share their plight and support HR 1322, an act in front of the House of Representatives that would stop group health plans from reducing health benefits after a person retires.

The measure, known as the Emergency Retiree Health Benefits Protection Act, also would require health plan sponsors to give retirees the option of benefit restoration unless it is not beneficial for the retirees to do so, is not administratively feasible or if it would cause a “substantial business hardship” to the company.

Of companies with more than 200 employees, 33 percent offered retiree health benefits in 2007, according to a benefits study completed by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Education Trust. In the telecommunications, communications and utilities industries, 47 percent of large companies offer retiree health benefits.

Embarq’s move will save the company $30 million annually, spokesman Charles Fleckenstein said. The affected include retirees from Sprint and Centel.

“The old days of when the telephone company was it are gone,” Fleckenstein said. “We find ourselves as a communications company competing against cable companies that don’t deliver services to retirees. We have to remain competitive. We had to make a decision to cut back.”

The telecommunications company, based in Overland Park, Kan., will no longer offer medical coverage for people eligible for Medicare, will stop providing a monthly subsidy for Medicare premiums and cap its life insurance benefit at $10,000. Charitable contributions made by any employee or retiree stopped being matched by the company after Sept. 1. Embarq will continue to offer medical coverage to retirees and dependents who are ineligible for Medicare.

The company’s initial letter to the retirees said recent changes in Medicare make it “more practical and efficient” for eligible individuals to buy coverage directly through a national carrier. Embarq retirees have been offered a plan through Aetna that will not deny anyone with pre-existing medical conditions.

Embarq retiree Edna Bishop, of Earlysville, is planning to pick up her pen and write to her representatives. Bishop, 69, said she never thought the telecommunications company would make use of a clause in the retirement paperwork that she used to dole out as a human resources employee. The clause said the company could change the benefits offered at any time.

“They said they were doing it for the shareholders,” Bishop said. “Well, most of us are shareholders too.”

Bishop, who was with the company for 34 years, said many Embarq employees remained with Sprint and Centel to reach the maximum of $40,000 in post-retirement life insurance. For Terrell, the life insurance cap is the worst part of Embarq’s announcement.

“You can’t even bury yourself for $10,000,” Terrell said. “You are actually leaving your spouse with nothing.”

Bishop and her husband have Medicare, but they have been using her retirement perks from a buyout to supplement the program - free medical insurance, $40,000 in life insurance, free prescriptions and two years’ pay came in the deal.

Bishop said she has spoken to former employees who are upset over the changes. Goode also has heard from Embarq retirees over HR 1322, an act he said most companies would oppose but he is “favorably inclined” toward it.

Jonathan Murphy, a spokesman for Warner, said the senator’s office had received letters from Embarq retirees. Warner has since contacted the State Corporation Commission and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration regarding their claims.

Embarq has been receiving some feedback on the changes from retirees, too.

“I can’t comment on the response,” Fleckenstein said. “Retirees have been letting us know how they feel.”