Five years ago, 73% of state and local governments provided retirees health care coverage; today it’s 68%. And retirement without health care isn’t very secure.
We’re helping public sector plan sponsors make sense of the options available when it comes to their retiree population’s health care benefits, from Group Medicare Advantage Plans to individual Medicare marketplaces—also known as Medicare exchanges—to health reimbursement arrangements, and how they can manage change and help retirees navigate choice. Tune in with Willis Towers Watson’s Marianne Steger to find out how public sector retiree health care promises can be kept.
Included in this series:
- Episode 1: The Great Trade-Off
- Episode 2: Searching for Sustainability
- Episode 3: How to Preserve Retiree Health Care
- Episode 4: Built to Last?
- Episode 5: How the City of Memphis Reduced its OPEB Liabilities
- Episode 6: Who's to Complain?
- Episode 7: The ABCs of Medicare
- Episode 8: Pre-Medicare Retiree Health Care Solution
- Episode 9: Which Medicare plans are best for retirees?
- Episode 10: Making Part D plans affordable
- Episode 11: The Retired World
Episode 1:
The Great Trade-Off
What makes working in the public sector unique and what’s at stake if retiree health care goes away
Hosts Marianne Steger and John Barkett kick off the series by talking about what makes public sector employees the strongest thread in the fabric of our communities. They also share how public sector employers can reduce their retiree health care liabilities.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Episode 2:
Searching for Sustainability
Options available for maintaining retiree health benefits
In this episode, John and Marianne discuss common challenges and goals for public sector plan sponsors in preserving retiree health care. Tune in to hear how public sector plan sponsors can keep their commitment of providing retiree health care, while lowering costs and providing affordable health plan options for retirees.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Episode 3:
How to Preserve Retiree Health Care
The individual Medicare marketplace – the best kept secret for delivering affordable retiree health care
What market dynamic allow individual Medicare marketplaces to offer better value than group plans and what does the transition to the individual Medicare marketplace really look like for both plan sponsors and their retirees? John and Marianne share their thoughts.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Episode 4:
Built to Last?
How to determine if your retiree health care program is future-proof
Providing retiree health care is more difficult than ever. As a result, the percentage of public sector employers who provide these benefits is shrinking. In this episode of Eye on 65, Marianne and John share the seven-question stress test that can be used to determine if your retiree health care program is built to last.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Episode 5:
How the City of Memphis Reduced its OPEB Liabilities
How can an innovative approach to retiree health care help solve a city’s financial liabilities? The City of Memphis’ CFO shares her lessons learned.
The City of Memphis was facing $1.3 billion in unfunded OPEB liabilities and needed a solution. Our guest, Chief Financial Officer Shirley Ford, shares how she helped the city and its retirees find a win-win solution using the Individual Medicare Marketplace.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Episode 6:
Who’s to Complain?
Get the scoop on what it’s like for a retiree to transition from a group health plan to a Medicare marketplace. In this episode, Donna Adassa talks candidly about her Medicare marketplace transition experience, including her aha moment while at an introductory seminar on Medicare, how she selected her health care plan, and her enrollment experience. Finally, she covers why she prefers the Medicare marketplace to her former group health plan.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Episode 7:
The ABCs of Medicare
A, B, C, D. Confused by the Medicare alphabet soup? Listen in as John Barkett and Marianne Steger sort through the ABCs of Medicare in this latest episode.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Episode 8:
Pre-Medicare Retiree Health Care Solution
Many workers retire before they are Medicare-eligible. Providing retiree health care coverage for them is quite challenging and expensive. Host Marianne Steger explains how the recent changes to the ACA made by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), have made health care for Pre-Medicare retirees accessible and more affordable.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Which Medicare plans are best for retirees?
Understand the differences between group Medicare and individual Medicare plans and which plans are best for retirees
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Episode 10:
Making Part D plans affordable
Drug coverage affordability really does exist in the individual Medicare marketplace!
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher About our host
Marianne Steger is on a mission to save retiree health care! She’s so devoted to the mission that she came out of retirement to become the director of public sector strategy for Willis Towers Watson. Previously, Marianne was the director of health care for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), where she ran the health care program for nearly a quarter of a million retirees and helped them transition from the OPERS group plan to the individual Medicare marketplace. With more than 35 years of experience in health plan strategy and design, employee benefits, labor relations, and public policy, Marianne works with public sector plan sponsors every day to help them preserve retiree health care benefits.
