Medicare Integration

Tom Siesto and I attended the NALC Committee of Presidents meeting the weekend of 3/11 to 3/13. President Brian Renfroe spoke on many subjects.

One issue affects almost all of us.  We need to hear about this to educate ourselves on what the facts are.

You will see intense messaging on this subject from both the USPS as well as the NALC starting 2023.

Medicare integration is coming to our front door due to the 2022 passing of the Postal reform/repeal of pre-funding of retiree health care legislation.

This is just a rough overview of what is coming over the next year and a ½. Pay attention to the Postal Record, NALC web site as well as the LIMB Leader.

Here is how it is:

Medicare comes in multiple parts. Medicare starts at 65 years old.

Part A - Hospital – no cost/already paid during your career in each paycheck.

Part B – Medical - Doctors - currently approx. $169 month

Part D – prescription - no mandate to take

Starting January 1, 2025, this law takes effect.

There are 2 groups under this legislation:

Group 1 – anyone 65 or older

Group 2 – all 64 and under

Group 1 – There is no mandate to sign up for Medicare. If you do not, there is a 10% penalty added each year you do not. If you are already 65 and retired, and you did not take Medicare at 65, you have accrued a 10% each year you have not been in it. I.e.: 69 years old would mean a 50% penalty.

If you do sign up for Medicare, during the 2024 open season, that penalty will be paid by the USPS for the rest of your life. Medicare then becomes your primary insurance.

Currently 85% of all USPS retirees sign up for Medicare. Your health plan then becomes your secondary insurance.

This is all your choice for those 65 and over on 1/1/2025.

Group 2 – all employees 64 and under on 1/1/2025

Every retiree in this group is mandated to sign up for Medicare A & B at age 65. If you do not, then you will lose your federal/Postal health plan.

There are 2 exceptions to this:

1.     If you are covered under your spouse’s plan.

2.     If there is no Medicare coverage in the area you live. (This does not really affect us in this area)

All of this starts in Plan year 2025. You MUST change your health plan during open season in 2024 to the duplicate plans under a new USPS subset.

Instead of a FEBA plan it will be called a PEBA plan (P identifies it as Postal only). The plans are identical, but it identifies us as postal retirees.

This information will be flooding us over the next year and a half. Hopefully all questions will be answered.

The repeal of the prefunding law also allows the USPS Medicare group to join other union groups to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices. Prior to this change the USPS was excluded from this opportunity.

There will be some hiccups but with educating our members we hope it will not be a real problem overall.

The NALC Health Plan offered a “Medicare Advantage Plan this year. It is a supplemental plan provided by AETNA. This plan offers different options. It has a Silver Seniors program. Rebate of $800 ($75 per month) per year. If you join but do not like it, you can change back to the NALC health plan. If you take the advantage plan, make sure you doctors are part of the AETNA network. The NALC plan is a CIGNA provider plan. Information on this new advantage plan can be found on the NALC web site: NALC.ORG