Increasing PreMedicare 2017 Health Insurance Premiums

[Barbara Iisager]

Did Northrop send out any notice or explanation discussing the increased costs of the health insurance premiums for 2017? I hadn’t received anything, i.e., no bulletin, no statement of the total cost less the credit applied, nor is there anything on the health benefit retiree website. In my case, my 2015-2016 Anthem Premium plan cost had risen 13%; my 2016-2017 cost has now risen an additional 23%. I’ve spoken with a different legacy NG employee who is considering retiring and has received his health insurance premium estimates. He has approximately the same years of service, is the same age and has a similar salary as I. While I expected some differences in cost, I did not expect such a substantial difference: my Anthem Premium and Anthem Value plan costs are more than 2x those quoted for him. I’ve tried to get some explanation from the employee benefits site, but the people manning the phones can’t provide any information — no explanation, no number or person to call, no link or mailing that provides any additional information. At a minimum, I expected some explanation and data on the true cost of the plan.

It doesn’t seem like anyone is questioning the costs or the lack of explanation. Yes, I know the health care costs are going up, still a 23% increase in the NG group insurance is rather high, and still the company should have sent out some kind of correspondence regarding it. What am I missing here?

• This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Barbara Iisager.

[Reggie Jue]

Thanks for posting your comment, Barbara. We in the TRA have no inside information about the answer to your question. If your friend is still an employee, I wonder if it’s possible that the difference is caused by the company subsidizing his health premiums more than they have chosen to for retirees.
I, too, was surprised at the increase in our net premiums. It has lead us to look at switching from the Premium to the Value plan. The description wasn’t very clear, but I think the difference is a much higher deductible for out-of-network care in the Value plan, but much lower monthly premiums.

[Barbara Iisager]

Thanks for your reply Reggie. At the rate I was quoted for the Premium plan, I decided to go to the Value plan.

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