Maximize Your Medicare Newsletter April 24, 2015 Not the News: Retiree Benefits Weakening Courts lining up to approve weaker retiree benefits It shouldn’t be a secret to anyone. Employers are faced with a higher retiree count, and the cost per retiree is increasing. The U.S. Supreme Court has recently ruled that an employer can eliminate retiree health benefits, and that a contract must be very specific in order to guarantee lifetime retiree health benefits. In the State of Michigan, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled (this week) that teachers can be required to pay more in order to preserve their pensions and health insurance benefits. You can read the article here. Practical reality: the payers are facing stress due to the fact that the number of retirees is frequently greater than the number of employees, and just recently, the size of the “hole” is being made public. This simply highlights a point that I make in Maximize Your Medicare: you need to keep updated on this. And, there is good news, because you DO have the right to switch to a Medicare Advantage or Medigap plan (most of them), even outside the Annual Election Period (which runs from October 15th-December 7th). That is not to say that you should change, but the fact is that you can change, and that you can go through the exercise to see how the changes could impact you.
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From a client: Dear Mr. Jae Oh, My husband and I are so thankful for your help. We were in need of a special insurance program and could not figure out how to meet the government’s December 7 deadline without finding ourselves locked into the same program we had last year. You phoned after I had searched the Internet for an answer, heard my distress, and created a course of action to solve our concern. This was amazing since you know you would not receive any financial reward for this kindness. We are grateful to you. Thank You! Sincerely, Robert and Phyllis Nulty Northville, MI
FREE ANDROID APP: You enter Date of Birth, and check some boxes. Depending on your answer, out comes a checklist of issues to consider. A perfect place to start for those new to Medicare.