Kansas – 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 Kansas. More applications are being approved each day.

• Agri-Business Benefit Trust
• American Academy of Family Physicians
• Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc.
• BAC Local Union 15 Welfare Fund
• Baker University
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Inc.
• Blue Valley Unified School District
• Board of Education Unified School Dist. 453*
• Boilermakers National Health and Welfare Fund
• Cement Masons & Plasterers Local 518 Health Care Fund
• City of Lawrence
• City of Leawood
• City of Lenexa
• City of Manhattan
• City of Merriam
• City of Olathe, Kansas
• City of Overland Park, Kansas
• City of Prairie Village, Kansas
• City of Topeka, Kansas
• City of Wichita
• City of Winfield
• Construction Industry Laborers Welfare Fund
• Crawford County
• Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kans
• Geary Community Hospital
• Greater Kansas City Laborers Welfare Fund
• Haysville Unified School Dist 261
• Hutchinson Community College
• Hutchinson Unified School District No. 308*
• IBEW Local Union No. 226 Open End Health and Welfare Trust Fund
• International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmith
• Johnson County, Kansas Government
• Kansas Building Trades Open End Health and Welfare Trust Fund
• Koch Industries, Inc.
• Learjet, Inc.
• MGP Ingredients Inc.
• Paola USD #368
• Performance Contracting Group, Inc.
• Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry Health and Welfa
• Security Benefit Corporation
• Shawnee Mission Unified School District 512
• Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc.
• Sprint Nextel Corporation
• State of Kansas - Accounting Services
• Steel and Pipe Supply Company, Inc.
• Turner Unified School District #202
• Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City*
• Unified School Dist No 500
• Unified School District #233
• Unified School District 273
• Unified School District 428
• Unified School District 489
• Unified School District No 232
• Unified School District No 357*
• Unified School District No 449
• Unified School District No. 259, Sedgwick County, Kansas
• Unified School District No. 377
• Waddell & Reed, Inc.
• Wallace, Saunders, Austin, Brown & Enochs, Chtd.
• Water District No. 1 of Johnson County
• Westar Energy, Inc.
• Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation

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

^[1] Kaiser / HRET. Employer Health Benefits: 2009 Survey.
^[2] Center for Policy and Research. Individual Health Insurance 2009.
^[3] Kaiser Family Foundation. 2010. Survey of People Who Purchase Their Own Insurance.

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