[Bill Wynne]

Originally Posted by CTgolfer

If you are an IBM retiree eligible for Medicare, what are your thoughts on which of the medical products you will be selecting? Also, if we choose to cover our spouse through the medical subsidy, the subsidy amount reduces drastically. Does it make sense to cover our spouse outside of the subsidy and take the full amount of the subsidy for me?

Thanks for your opinions.

I am upset because I would like to enroll in the new United Healthcare "The Villages Medicare Complete" plan. The Extend Health Benefites coordinator I talked to said they (Extend Health) don't support this plan. He was also rude. He said I can take the villages plan but then I can't then use the HRA funds from IBM that Extend health manages. In short... I have to use their plans.

Let me know if you hear anything different on this.

[SemiMike]

Originally Posted by Bill Wynne

I am upset because I would like to enroll in the new United Healthcare "The Villages Medicare Complete" plan. The Extend Health Benefites coordinator I talked to said they (Extend Health) don't support this plan. He was also rude. He said I can take the villages plan but then I can't then use the HRA funds from IBM that Extend health manages. In short... I have to use their plans.

Let me know if you hear anything different on this.

DuPont also uses Extend Health for its retirees, and I now have the United Healthcare plan, and no difficulty with reimbursements.

[JourneyOfLife]

Originally Posted by CTgolfer

If you are an IBM retiree eligible for Medicare, what are your thoughts on which of the medical products you will be selecting? Also, if we choose to cover our spouse through the medical subsidy, the subsidy amount reduces drastically. Does it make sense to cover our spouse outside of the subsidy and take the full amount of the subsidy for me?

Thanks for your opinions.

Will your spouse be eligible for a survivor benefit? What are the rules?

I would put a pencil to paper and compare all of the alternatives.

[CTgolfer]

Just as an fyi... this is the decision my husband I made regarding 2014 health insurance.

We opted out of the death benefit because it would have reduced our annual HRA fund to around $2300. Instead, we took the full amount of the HRA fund ($3,000). For myself, I chose AARP United Healthcare Plan F (around $183/month) and for my husband we chose Plan N (around $132/month).