retirement trust health plan
My union sold us on trust that we pay into now and then continue to pay into in reitrement while receiving various health benefits. It was sold to us as retirement health insurance. I've been suspicious of this since it came up. I just received the plan booklet after like 3 months of asking and I am confused by a few things:
- the plan was written in the 90s and hasn't changed a word since then. They tout this as they havent "changed prices/costs to you" in decades. It has what I would considere extremely outdated language or concepts in it.
2)Lifetime maximum benefits - it seems like 1-2 big medical emergencies would exhaust it.
3)excludes therapy for mental health/learning disabilities, and perscriptions for birth control and learning disabilities.
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coverage for dependants is terminated on the day of their 19th birthday, unless they encounter teenage pregnancy then they are terminated on the spot.
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my LGBT coworkers don't feel secure due to the way it defines spousal benefits or excludes "sex tansformation". When explicitly asked they used a lot of weasel words.
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when we reach medicare age, it switches to covering "everything medicare does not" as a medicare supplement plan. They will not tell me which medicare supplement plan it is A-N. It continues accumulating toward the lifetime maximum from pre madicare payouts.
I've been reassured several times that this trust is not a scam but it seems to be an elaborate pyramid scheme. they still won't show me proof of the financial health of the trust. They say it has no affiliation with the union but all the trustees are current or former union reps. For the record I voted against it but since a majority of the union voted yes we all have to pay in.
Does this seem as sketchy to you as it does to me? Is this a legit self-funded health plan?
Posted Mar 8, 2023, 8:11 PM UTC
It sounds like a typical prehistoric union-trust plan that’s been grandfathered over and over again since the dawn of time. Complete with being obsolete and incompetently managed and overseen by the union. I used to see quite a few of these. Only type of plan I’ve ever seen pay for DESI drugs.
These are usually not self-insured plans under ERISA. More commonly they are multi-employer trusts under the Taft-Hartley act.
It was written in the 90s and mentions both ERISA and HIPAA. It just seems like it covers way less than is required by the ACA or what I could get on the marketplace for a similar cost. When I ask if it actually does cover some of these, they say most of these things aren't needed when you retire.