Delaware - Early Retiree Reinsurance Program

Rising health care costs have made it difficult for employers to provide quality, affordable health insurance for workers and retirees while also remaining competitive in the global marketplace. The percentage of large firms providing workers with retiree health coverage has dropped from 66 percent in 1988 to 29 percent in 2009.¹ Health insurance premiums for older Americans are over four times more expensive than they are for young adults,² and the deductible these enrollees pay is, on average, almost four times that for a typical employer-sponsored insurance plan.³

The Affordable Care Act creates a new program called the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program to help address this challenge that employers and older employees are facing.  The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program provides $5 billion in financial assistance to employers and unions to help them maintain coverage for early retirees age 55 and older who are not yet eligible for Medicare.

Businesses, other employers, and unions that are accepted into the program will receive reimbursement for medical claims for early retirees and their spouses, surviving spouses, and dependents. Savings can be used to reduce employer health care costs, provide premium relief to workers and families, or both. Applicants who are approved into the program receive reinsurance for the claims of high-cost retirees and their families (80 percent of the costs from $15,000 to $90,000). The program ends on January 1, 2014 when State health insurance Exchanges are up and running.

HHS has approved the following sponsors from Delaware. More applications are being approved each day.

• Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals LP
• Christiana Care Health Systems, Inc.
• City Of Wilmington, Delaware
• Delaware Electtric Cooperative, Inc.*
• EI duPont de Nemours and Company
• NECA Local Union No. 313
• New Castle County
• Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union No. 74 Welfare Fund
• Sentinel Transportation, LLC
• State of Delaware
• Sussex County Council
• W.L. Gore & Associates Inc.

*New program participants as of May 24, 2011.  List to be updated monthly.

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