Happy Fall
Accessing the TRB website.
Changes of some sort were made that impact how we access the TRB website. In order to go to the site, you must now use this website address. portal.ct.gov/trb
Who are we again?
As a reminder for most retirees and an introduction for those who are newly retired this year, SFCTRA includes all retirees from the public school systems of eight towns (Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, Stamford, Weston, Westport, Wilton). We are an affiliate of the Association of Retired Teachers of Connecticut, ARTC, a group that represents retired educators of all public school districts in Connecticut. This means they include retirees from districts where educators were represented by CEA or AFT units AND this groups focuses only on retired educators’ concerns. We publish a newsletter, offer in-person programs from time to time and offer book award financial grants to high school seniors from among these eight towns who are going to study to become educators.
Membership
Help support SFCRTA so we can continue to provide this Newsletter, to offer book awards financial grants for future educators, to offer meetings for our members and more. Please join or renew your membership for 2027. Note that our membership rate has not increased. Can you think of anything else that didn’t increase?
SFCRTA Membership Renewal Information
Our membership goes from – January to December. If you have not yet joined, click here for our membership renewal information for 2027. Remember: Numbers matter and we still face many important issues regarding our pension and health insurance.
Please do not staple your check to the card.
Use a black or blue pen, not a sharpie as the check reader can’t process it.
Membership cards are no longer sent. Current membership is kept by the Membership Chair.
Fill out the return section completely, including phone and email. SFCRTA does NOT provide your information to anyone. We are strictly old school- paper checks and cards kept by the Membership Chair.
It helps to have your return address on the envelope.
Health Insurance
It is open enrollment time when retirees who get their health insurance through the TRB can choose between two different pan offerings, Medicare with a supplement from The Hartford or Medicare Advantage from Aetna. Both plans have identical prescription drug coverage from CVS/Caremark and dental insurance from Cigna. Take note, however, that for 2027, the TRB has provided options for the dental coverage.
Costs for each plan have gone up slightly, but are not at levels we read about in the news for increasing health insurance costs. We are in a continuing contract with both plans, so we seem to be benefiting from negotiated rates for those contracts. How else are we benefitting from using insurance provided by the TRB? If you have had occasion to speak with the providers, you will often hear some mention of beneficial ways that our health insurance works that is not always part of independent plans. For example, we are able to choose to pick up our medication, even for 90-day amounts, directly from the pharmacy at no extra cost, if we choose. Other plans have an upcharge for this option. Having a PPO plan for the Advantage plan where we may see any medical practitioner who accepts Medicare is a huge asset for us.
Let’s acknowledge that the plans the TRB have negotiated for us are robust. One additional benefit is that we have two good choices and only two. If you have ever investigated health insurance choices on behalf of a family member, you will know that examining the multitude of choices can be daunting. So, make a decision to stay with what you had this year, which requires doing nothing, or make a change and complete the necessary paper work.
The TRB health insurance site online includes two forms related to dental insurance. One form is to opt in for dental insurance open to retirees who enrolled BEFORE 2016 without dental insurance and the other is a permanent disenrollment form for those members who wish to no longer have dental insurance coverage. Once either of these decisions have been made, they cannot be rescinded.
How the ancillary services of our health plans do and do not work. By ancillary services, I mean the vision, hearing, and health club benefits. Every year retirees lament that our plans do not include hearing aid coverage from Costco and encourage the plans to include Costco. The same requests are made about including various gyms or YMCA/YWCA programs. Aetna uses a network for hearing and fitness programs, and the decision to be included, or not, in the network for our plan is made by those programs, not by the insurance company. Why won’t Costco ever be part of these networks? They keep the prices low because they are supported by membership fees and they do not participate with any insurance. This means they don’t interact with insurance, complete insurance paperwork etc. Their prices are low due to their simplified arrangement. They will not opt to join networks. Now, the Hartford plan does not seem to use a network for hearing services, so retirees on that plan should be able to use Costco for hearing aids and submit paperwork, but check first. For vision services, neither plan has a network requirement, so you may be able to purchase glasses at Costco and submit the paperwork for reimbursement. Similarly, fitness programs make the decision to participate, or not, with Silver Sneakers (Aetna) or Silver & Fit Gym Membership (The Hartford). Additional programs are welcome to join the networks for these programs, but the decision to join or not is up to the fitness center. Sites who accept what is offered by the health insurance plans are welcome.
Meeting Plans
Once again, we are sorry that our plans for the October 14 meeting on accessing care through Medicare had to be canceled. We are in the process of making plans for an in-person meeting in the spring. Stay tuned.
A Valuable Resource
The Center for Medicare Advocacy is a wonderful resource for information on how to access services. The speaker for the meeting we were going to hold was coming from their agency. The information they offer pertains to Medicare, of course, but also to Medicare Advantage programs as they are supposed to provide the same services as Medicare would offer. Go to Medicareadvocacy.org and sign up to receive their free newsletter.
Pension Fund
If you want to know more about how our pension fund is invested, you can follow the TRB meetings online as they happen, or read minutes of the meetings after they are posted on the TRB website. Here is information taken from the minutes of the most recent meeting.
Ted Wright, Chief Investment Officer, provided an update on the TRS pension Investment performance. The pension fund returned 15.1% for the fiscal year, adding approximately $11 billion to the pension. ……. Four years ago, we were at the bottom of the relative rankings versus our peers. Four years later, we are one of the best performing public pensions in the country.
Upcoming TRB Elections
Candidates are currently applying to run for office as retired teacher representatives to the TRB. At this time, they are petitioning to be a candidate, which involves soliciting endorsements to be listed as a candidate. Having representatives who encourage our participation matters. For example, Ed Vargas joined the TRB in the last election and had promised to ask questions on our behalf. He gave out his email address and does actually speak up and ask questions on behalf of retired teachers.
The actual election may be a bit confusing as there are four seats for retired teacher representatives, but they do not all come up for reelection at the same time. This discrepancy is a result of how the two additional spots for retired teacher representatives were added. It looks like the election will be held at one time, but two seats begin their term in June and two seats begin their term in October of 2027.
A description of the election process can be found here:
Learning opportunities
Don’t forget about the wonderful programs offered by Learning in Retirement in Stamford and by Lifetime Learners in Norwalk.
Learning in Retirement offers single session classes on a variety of topics, field trips, as well as sessions with government officials such as Sen. Blumenthal. Classes are held at Temple Beth El on Roxbury Road in Stamford.
Lifetime Learners offers multi-session courses, some on Zoom and others on campus at CT State Community College in Norwalk. The breadth of offerings is impressive.
Getting involved with SFCTRA
Now that you are retired, you have some unscheduled time and we would like to encourage you to think about how you might contribute your talents to this group. Just think of the expertise that exists among us! How might you contribute? Maybe a retired social studies teacher with an interest in government would like to track proposals in the Connecticut Legislature that might impact us. A retired math teacher might volunteer to help our treasurer, who is also a retired math teacher. You might write an article for our periodic newsletter on a topic of interest to retirees. Actually, you are resourceful and can make suggestions to us. Think about it! We welcome your input. Using the subject SFCRTA, get in touch with our President Frank Cooper or Newsletter editor/writer Barbara Oppedisano
Frank Cooper fjxcooper@gmail.com
Barbara Oppedisano. bopped1@aol.com