For retirees or LTD: employer vs private med (supplemental?) nsurance

[Second Chance]

I should probably wait until i settle the other topic, but its open enrollment now for my university health insurance. When i was active faculty, was a great medical plan, but of course payed for mostly by university. Now I pay all the rather expensive premium costs. Before i go into details, is there anyone on here who was faced with similar decisions- to keep the employer offered coverage or switch to private?

[clean]

Where I am, the retired employee is eligible for health insurance (usually) and that is covered as part of the retirement benefit. For the spouse, the employee can have them covered, but must pay for them.  Survivors of retired spouses can also pay for the insurance, but it is rather expensive.  I think that it was over $600 a month for those already covered by medicare.  As a result, many of the surviving spouses would opt to find alternatives.  I dont know what they found, or where they shopped, but they faced the choices you posed and opted out of the university offered coverage (as there was not state support provided them).  this was before The Affordable Care Act, though, so I dont know if that act changed the decisions. 

[Second Chance]

That's a great deal- that the univ. covers it for retirees. I wonder if the folks youre talking about are on state retirement system rather than TIAA? We had the choice on entereing and i elected TIAA at the advice of senior profs where i went to grad school. But those on state retirement option (and you can't switch once you selected) get the med care for retiree as part of the package. Who knew such things would matter? (though back then, not even sure they told us about that particular perk).
Those of us who selected tiaa though get no such coverage or even subsidy.

[clean]

But those on state retirement option (and you can't switch once you selected) get the med care for retiree as part of the package.

Here, whether you choose the pension plan or the optional retirement (TIAA), once you qualify, currently the rule of 80, where your age plus years of service =80, you qualify for state subsidized health premiums. There may be some other requirement for the TIAA folks that requires that some money must be in one of the state sponsored TIAA fund accounts, but that is pretty deep in the woods of the rules. 

Im in TIAA, and in 5 years, I qualify for health insurance (unless the state changes the rules again).   

[nebo113]

I stayed with employee retirement supplemental.  Watching my mother have to deal with annual enrollment made me realize I just don't want to chance it.  And my cousins in health care told me horror stories about private supplementals.

[Second Chance]

@clean
Do you know where I can find that on age plus service = 80? I have never heard of that as a federal law and that would be of help. I still wonder if thevye found a way to exclude tiaa folks and its this law that entitles the state pensioners to have subsidies for their health insurance that i now see.

[clean]

it is not a federal law. It is the way the state determines who is eligible for retirement benefits.  Before I was hired, it was age plus years experience = 70 to qualify for retirement benefits.  there were additional requirements (like you had to be at least 55 to qualify).
I would check the HR pages of your employer's website.  It has to provide the formulas for calculating eligibility and benefits on there somewhere.  Also, at annual enrollment, there is likely some discussion of it.  Finally, for my employer, they have a 'retirement fair/workshop' for people that are close to retirement to discuss the process and benefits.  It is broadcast to all of the universities in the system, and i m sure that it is recorded for others to watch later.   
Where I am now, even if you dont qualify for the rule of 80, as long as you work 10 years, you can get the retirement health care at 65, even if you leave the job. All of these rules are discussed somewhere on the HR website. 

[Second Chance]

ok, if its not federal, then it is totally different at my university/state. I have been through all the handbooks - faculty handbook, retirement info, etc. Yes, we have certain rules by which you can be emeritius prof (I am despite retiring early) based on age plus years and entitled to other perks (parking, library etc.), but for medical insurance, it only provides eligibility/automatic acceptance but provides zero subsidy for TIAA enrolees. It used to pay 100 percent for state system retirees but i think they switched over to a subsidy model instead- haven't really kept up with that since it didn't apply to me. Oh well, gave me hope there for a moment.

Hopefully there are some others that have had this decision (so far one person on the thread).

[Second Chance]

I stayed with employee retirement supplemental.  Watching my mother have to deal with annual enrollment made me realize I just don't want to chance it.  And my cousins in health care told me horror stories about private supplementals.

Thanks for the info. I sent you a PM on the topic.