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After each one of our Annual General Meetings, I have often wondered how many retirees walk away with questions on their minds that they didn’t get answered, or formulate questions a few days or weeks later after the meeting. This “blog” is offered as an experimental service to provide a means for our retirees to communicate with each other regarding questions that may have lingered after one of our meetings. Of course it can also serve as a communication tool for discussion of any topic of interest that is on a retiree person’s mind, or their spouses and dependents. This blog could essentially provide a relatively active means for opening up a dialogue among retirees (or potential retirees — active employees are welcome to participate) on topics of common and current interest. It can also serve as a place where local experts on Medicare, or healthcare topics in general, can submit timely articles of interest, or retirees themselves can write articles about personal experiences that can benefit all of us by knowing about it.
As an example, a common question asked by Tier 1 retirees (those retiring with lifetime benefits) is… should they enroll in Medicare Part B? These retirees are not required to enroll in Medicare Part B, but should they? The Benefits Committee and the Exec Board of the VCCCDRA have been looking into this question for a while and are not quite ready to provide a definitive answer. One of our retirees, Don Medley, did offer up his reasons why he thinks it is a good idea for retirees to enroll in Medicare Part B in The Monitor, Winter 2010 issue of the VCCCDRA newsletter, which we encourage you to read.
But for now, the one category of individuals who we think should seriously consider enrolling in Medicare Part B when they turn 65 are the spouses of retirees with lifetime benefits. The reason is that spouses of retirees will lose their healthcare benefits if the retiree dies. The spouse will be covered by the district healthcare plan for only a very brief time afterwards. Don’t wait to enroll. There is a 10% permanent penalty that is imposed on premiums for each year a person does not enroll after the age of 65. Wait three years and pay 30% more on premiums from then on. See the article “Medicare, Anyone?” in the What’s New web page of the vcccdra.org retiree website for a contact person from Anthem who would be happy to answer any questions you may have about Medicare.
Medicare is part of the retirement healthcare package of Tiers 2 retirees with the district paying the premiums for retirees, so there is no question that these retirees will be enrolling in Medicare. However, spouses of these retirees will also lose their healthcare benefits if the retiree dies.
Retirees (and their spouses) of Tiers 3 and 4, most if not all of whom are still active employees, will most definitely want to look into enrolling in Medicare at age 65.
Just as Don Medley above has shared his personal experiences with Medicare Part B and feels positive about it, many of you have had your own personal experiences regarding the pros and cons of being enrolled in Medicare Part B, and we encourage you to share what you think in the comment section, or write an article about it and send it to us for inclusion in this blog. Likewise, if you have any questions or comments on any other topic of interest, please feel free to share them with us. Articles for this blog may be emailed to me here.
Rene G. Rodriguez
Nice article, Rene! As you astutely noted, the spouse of each VCCCD retiree should consider enrolling in Medicare, when eligible, to make sure they are not without health insurance when the insurance from VCCCD lapses after the retiree passes away. This applies regardless of whichever benefit tier applies to the retiree.