Choice Matters
Why retirees in their former employer’s group health plan are missing out on financial savings opportunities
Group plans offer very limited choice of benefit, if any. The individual marketplace allows you to choose among many more plans to find the right one for you. Choice affords retirees the ability to personalize their healthcare plans and budgets and evolve those choices over the rest of their lives. Retirees are a diverse group with unique financial, health and lifestyle concerns. The marketplace model helps you honor their diversity and enables retirees to choose the plan that meets their unique needs.
The power of choice is key to solving the unique needs of a diverse retiree population. Choice in coverage also supports personalization within the family unit. The individual marketplace includes economic variables not existent in a group plan:
Carrier competition drives down cost
Each retiree selects a plan to meet unique objectives (e.g., budget, health status, prescriptions, etc.)
Group plans inherently require 80%+ of participants to be over insured to fund high utilizers
Center for Medicare Services protects the retiree with guarantee-issue access
Via Benefits offers a win-win solution for both plan sponsors and retirees.
Putting CHOICE back in retirees’ hands
Group Medicare plans and group Medicare Advantage plans can leave retirees exposed. See how more coverage options lead to outcomes that fit the needs and budget of every retiree.
Retirees can use a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) for a variety of eligible expenses, including premiums, out-of-pocket costs, and if the employer allows, Part B premiums. An HRA reduces costs for retirees beyond the net subsidy embedded within a group plan.