Retiree medical premium

[ShadowBloom]

My retiree medical premium is going up 8.5% next year. This is after being unchanged for several years. I could buy cheaper insurance through ACA, but the deductibles and OOP max are much bigger and the networks are much smaller, so I "prefer" to pay more for now.

The dental premium is staying the same. This is the first time that's happened. I'm not sure it's worth keeping, but if I drop it, I can't get it back, and it's not too expensive yet.

 

[W2R]

I have federal employee/retiree (FEHB) BCBS health insurance, which they turned into a terrific Medicare supplement when I started Medicare.

It is going up almost 12% in 2023. I could choose a cheaper federal employee/retiree health insurance/supplement, but refuse to. The one I have is a known quantity and very satisfactory, and I plan to keep it for the rest of my life. Besides, I would imagine that most other Medicare supplements (whether FEHB or ACA) are going up quite a bit, as well. Not only that, my federal mini-pension is going up due to inflation, enough to more than compensate for the increase in FEHB.

I don't have dental insurance at all, but my dentist gives me a 15% discount for being uninsured.

Overall, I'm not dissatisfied despite the ~12% increase.

 

[TripleLindy]

My retiree medical premium is going up 8.5% next year. This is after being unchanged for several years. I could buy cheaper insurance through ACA, but the deductibles and OOP max are much bigger and the networks are much smaller, so I "prefer" to pay more for now.

The dental premium is staying the same. This is the first time that's happened. I'm not sure it's worth keeping, but if I drop it, I can't get it back, and it's not too expensive yet.

There are a couple of factors for me when choosing an insurance plan:
1. Annual premium vs. Deductible/Max Out of Pocket
2. In-network docs

This year, I’ve found a plan that costs $1200 more than the lowest cost plan, but has $4000 less out of pocket max. Given that 1 or both of us face possible ortho procedures next year, the $1200 extra premium is relatively low risk.

That wouldn’t matter if our ortho specialist wasn’t in-network, but he is, at least for now. Unfortunately, I’ve recently discovered that docs can choose not to accept patients even when under contract with a health plan. That makes it hard on the patient, as we choose our plan based on participating docs. The docs can opt out at any time, apparently, yet we can only change during open enrollment.

 

[Gotadimple]

My retiree medical premium is going up 8.5% next year. This is after being unchanged for several years. I could buy cheaper insurance through ACA, but the deductibles and OOP max are much bigger and the networks are much smaller, so I "prefer" to pay more for now.

The dental premium is staying the same. This is the first time that's happened. I'm not sure it's worth keeping, but if I drop it, I can't get it back, and it's not too expensive yet.

If you worked for Megacorp, your company negotiates the rates with the insurer based on the claims experience of all the retirees in the plan. It may be a good plan with lower co-pays and deductibles, but those can translate into higher premiums if a lot of the retirees in the plan make a lot of claims. Logically, it's not unrealistic that Covid experience can also cause rates to rise.

I also had a great retiree plan, but it became very pricey because of the lower copays. In my case, the provider network was the same and buying the individual coverage directly was cheaper. So, it was less expensive for the same network and benefits. For me anyway.

- Rita