Recent Events Important to Your
Health Care Decisions

  METLIFE PLANNING TO SIGNIFICANTLY RAISE LONG-TERM CARE (LTC) INSURANCE RATES ACROSS ITS’ “in force” EMPLOYER GROUP PLANS

• MetLife is in the process of filing requests with the appropriate state insurance departments for a premium increase of 45%. The actual amount and timing of the rate increase is subject to state regulatory approval among other factors. Other major LTC carriers, such as John Hancock, are filing for similar increases.
• Alcatel-Lucent has sent out an information mailing to all retirees, whether they have this insurance coverage or not.
• The following is a link that takes people directly to the A-L management Retiree LTC Page on their Benefit Answers Plus site which provides additional information:
• http://www.benefitanswersplus.com/retired_m/oltc.html
• o The LTC announcement is on the main landing page when you go to the Management Retiree section. A-L tells us that they will continue to keep an eye on the LTC market to see if other alternatives develop.

  ALCATEL-LUCENT COMMENTS ON 2012 MEDICARE AND PRE-MEDICARE PREMIUMS

• The rate for the UHC PPO Medicare Advantage plan for 2012 is $40.03, including the Medco Part D Prescription Plan. Great News, a premium reduction of almost 50%!
• Alcatel-Lucent advises that the principle reasons for them to be able to negotiate a lower premium with UHC is that they have rolled the Aetna coverage in with UHC – lower administrative costs by dealing only with one carrier, and the experience for plan year 2010 was lower cost than anticipated by UHC. They used 2010 experience for negotiating 2012 expected cost and premium.
• Also, A-L advises the manner in which A-L applied the ERRP funding for 2012 is as follows:
• There is no premium increase for the pre-65 plan for single retirees in the United POS Plan – approximately $100 per month or $1,200 for the 2012 plan year.
• The same amount, ~$100 per month/$1,200 for 2012 plan year, passed through to those retirees with family coverage. The family coverage would have gone up by ~$200 rather than the ~$100 for 2012.