Happy Fall
Membership Meeting
This Newsletter edition is going out only to all current SFCRTA members and includes an invitation to our Fall Membership meeting to be held on Oct. 12, 2022, at beautiful Rolling Hills Country Club in Wilton. Here are a few things to note about the invitation.
- The charge for current members is $15 and nonmember guests may attend for $25.
- Please respond by the RSVP date so we are able to provide a count of attendees.
- We will be collecting unwrapped new toys for Toys for Tots. For the past two years when we were not able to meet in person, we made a donation to this organization, but we are happy to return to the practice of bringing unwrapped toys to the event.
COLA
The previous issue of the Newsletter contained a chart from the TRB about the COLA amounts for the different retirement tiers. Please note that a COLA increase is given once a year, if at all, depending on when you retired. Most educators retire at the end of the school year, so they will receive the COLA increase in the July check, which arrives at the end of the month. Although the impact of inflation continues to be evident, it is still necessary for the pension account gains to meet the present standard of 6.9%. If you are reading the newspapers, you know that pension accounts and endowments have been struggling in the current market. For now, enjoy the increase you received EITHER in January or July this year.
Health Insurance
Retired teachers from Connecticut receive their health insurance coverage in different ways. Many of our members have selected the UHC Medicare Advantage plan. Others have chosen to keep Medicare and use the UHC Supplement plan. Still others purchase their health insurance through the board of education from which they retired or purchase health insurance plans or HMO plans independently. For this reason, when reviewing information we provide about health insurance possibilities, you have to make your own determination about how the information applies to your own situation. Deciding how any plan applies to you is above my pay grade (volunteer Newsletter Editor), but some of the information may be useful to you. Southern Fairfield County Retired Teachers’ Association Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, Stamford, Weston, Westport. Wilton
Retirees who buy their health insurance through their previous Board of Education should have seen the impact of the doubled subsidy amount with their July costs. We have not heard any new information from the TRB about our UHC health insurance plans. It is expected that we will receive information in the fall about the open enrollment phase when you will be able to switch your plan for 2023. Medicare’s Open Enrollment period runs from October 15 to December 7 each year, but ours may be different. Be prepared to collect the information you need and to think about how your current plan has worked for you so that you can make a decision for next year.
In the meantime, if you have concerns or issues with your health insurance, please contact the TRB at HealthInsurance.TRB@ct.gov You are asked to send a copy of your communication to the Association of Retired Teachers of Connecticut, also, as they have been collecting and monitoring health insurance issues. They can be reached at artct@artct.org
Prescription Medications
A SFCRTA member called our attention to an alternate way to get prescription medication that may save money. It is www.InsideRx.com and does not involve our health insurance at all. It is totally independent from the insurance through the TRB, and the 90-day-supply medications come from Express Scripts. In a very specific situation, it could save you money. An expensive prescription could be less expensive there. Any prescription medications ordered there would NOT count toward your copays or cap for medications you receive through our health insurance with OptumRx. Note that our OptumRx prescription plans are identical for both the Supplement and Advantage plans.
Recent federal legislation will impact our health insurance costs for prescriptions, but none of those provisions take effect in 2023, so stay tuned. There are two components that may reduce prescription medication costs over time. First is a plan to cap prescription costs for Medicare participants at $2000 per year, starting in 2025. Next is to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, but the negotiated prices for the first 10 medications selected go into effect in 2026. Additionally, the Food and Drug Administration approved a rule that will allow people with mild to moderate hearing loss to purchase hearing aids directly without a prescription, and it is possible those devices may be available for purchase by mid-October. Again, purchasing hearing aids directly, rather than through a UHC provider, most likely means you will not receive the reimbursement offered by your plan.
Social Security Fairness- URGENT!
Social Security Fairness has worked tirelessly and successfully to secure 294 Members of the House of Representatives who have co-signed H.R. 82, to fully repeal the WEP and GPO! That means the Bill can come out of the Ways and Means Committee for a vote. Now, it is essential to “lean on Senators” to build state coalitions. This effort is an especially important undertaking for retirees who live outside Connecticut because our two senators are already supporters of these efforts. Make certain that your senators are, too. Even if their state employees are not impacted by the WEP/GPO provisions, people living in their state are.
From www.ssfairness.org: H.R. 82 and S. 1302 are companion bills, meaning that they contain the same language. Both ask for a repeal of the WEP & GPO without a sunset clause and, while we continue to contact Representatives, it is imperative to encourage Senators to cosponsor S.1302. Grassroots volunteerism is vital, so we ask that you engage in political action to eliminate the WEP & GPO through H.R. 82 and S. 1302.
- Another method for contacting Representatives and Senators is directly from the government
websites for specific bills. To the right of the bill sponsor, you will see Give Feedback on
This Bill and then a Contact Your Member link. Follow the instructions provided.
H.R. 82: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/82/cosponsors
S. 1302: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1302/cosponsors
See www.ssfairness.org for more information.
Pension Contributions
From the CT Mirror- July 7, 2022
After underfunding its pensions for state employees and municipal teachers for more than 70 years, running through 2010, Connecticut has tried to reverse that. Besides making the full required pension contributions over the past three fiscal years, they’ve earmarked an unprecedented $5.4 billion in surpluses to accelerate retirement of pension debt. That includes $61 million in 2020, $1.6 billion in 2021, and a whopping $3.7 billion left over from the fiscal year that closed June 30.
Those supplemental payments — and the potential investment earnings they will generate over the next two-and-a-half decades — mean the state should be able to shave $443 million off its annual pension bill by July 2023, according to a new analysis from Cavanaugh-Macdonald Consulting of Kennesaw, Ga., the state’s pension actuaries.
Elections
After reading the two previous sections, Social Security Fairness and Pension Contributions, you see that elections matter. Be sure to vote your/our interests in November.
Additional Resources
The Center for Medicare Advocacy is an excellent resource for issues related to health care and we were recently alerted to information that pertains to home health coverage. A ruling has made it clear that people do not have to improve to qualify for Medicare coverage. If you know someone who is being denied home health services, please direct them to contact the Center
www.MedicareAdvocacy.org The flyer “Medicare Home Health Coverage in Light of Jimmo v. Sebelius“ outlines the relevant criteria. It is not clear how the ruling impacts home health coverage through the UHC Medicare Advantage plan.
You can find and compare nursing homes, home health services and many other types of providers and services at www.medicare.gov by selecting Providers & Services and using the Find & Compare options.
Money Matters
Abandoned pension accounts– In our July newsletter we suggested you look at the TRB website listing of Abandoned Funds, listed by employing district to see if you recognize any colleagues who may be listed there so you can alert them to claim their funds. You can read the full explanation in our July 2022 Newsletter that is posted on our website www.SFCRTA.com or you can use this link to the list
https://portal.ct.gov//media/TRB/Content/ActiveInactive/AI_UNCLMDEM.pdf
Unclaimed property is usually money that has been turned over to the state and overseen by the State Treasurer. Connecticut’s unclaimed property site, www.ctbiglist.com gives the following examples:
Inactive savings and checks accounts
Uncashed checks, such as payroll, refunds
Forgotten telephone or utility deposits
Inactive stocks and bonds
Life insurance policy proceeds
On Connecticut’s site, you can easily search for your own name or family and friends to see if there are unclaimed funds that you can have returned. Other states maintain a similar list, so check wherever you have lived. Who doesn’t like found money?
The new school year
Many school systems are still working to fill vacancies and our former colleagues are challenged to make up for lost or compromised learning time from the previous two years. Please use every opportunity you can to show support for our public schools and their employees.