Health benefits upon retirement
HEALTH BENEFITS UPDATE
Many questions have been posed as to
health benefits upon retirement, and, to say the
least, there are multiple variables that have to
be considered for continuation of health care
into various types of retirement.
The first place you must look is your department’s collective bargaining agreement. In
most cases this is the easiest place to clarify
KEVIN C.
what benefits will be provided to you.
LYONS
The first discussion is about Chapter 330 benefits. These benefits are provided to any person
that retires from a department after 25 years of service that did
not provide post retirements on July 1, 1998. That is to say that
departments that surrender their health benefits after that date
are not eligible for the state subsidy of 80 percent of the lowestcost managed plan through the state. The member may purchase up to Direct or Freedom 10 but at 100 percent of the cost
of the difference from the lowest-cost health care plan minus the
80 percent subsidy of the lowest-cost health care plan. Information on rates is available on the State Health Benefits Plan
(SHBP) website in Fact Sheet 47.
The next topic for discussion is health benefits on a disability
pension. While these are strictly contractual, any retiree is eligible to purchase retiree benefits from the state at the full retiree
cost, which can be prohibitive. This is addressed in Fact Sheet 26
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on the SHPB website, and the rates for retirees are there as well.
It is important to note that all retirees must be enrolled in the
prescription plan from the state if they are enrolled in the State
Health Benefits Plan. There is no restriction for those who have
stand-alone plans.
Anothe