Chair Talk

August 2012

The premium share that non-Medicare retirees pay for health insurance will increase from a 10% share to 20%. This change will affect about 16,000 retirees. The increase will probably take effect on October 1, 2012. This change is a result of the collective bargaining process. State Employee unions agreed to increase the premium share for active employees to 20% and the Civil Service Commission approved the change. Retirees (according to statute) are required to pay a premium share equal to the premium share active employees pay for the State Health Plan. A Retiree Benefits Bulletin should be issued soon with the new premium rates. We have not been notified about any other changes in the State Health Plan.

I have sent a letter to Phil Stoddard, Director, of the Office of Retirement Services requesting a meeting to discuss the recent changes that ORS has made to dependent eligibility requirements for the State Retirees Health Plan. The notice I received and a copy of the letter sent to Mr. Stoddard will be available at the August CC meeting.

A SERA committee (Dave Cook, Dave Reusser, Mary Pollock and I) met with Richard James, Tim Easterwood, John Cole and Cheryl Streberger (phone) to discuss the status of the SERA PLUS program. It appears that the program is going well and SERA has gained many new members since the program began in mid-March. At this meeting I was handed a check for $7388.00 representing various SERA Chapter dues for 541 new members enrolled in June and July. Checks to the various Chapters will be sent in the near future with new member names and addresses. The SERA PLUS program has enrolled over 1400 new SERA members since the program began. Our job is to work to retain these new members and get them active in our Chapters. We are finding out from this program that a lot of retirees are not even aware of our organization. We need to work a little harder to become more visible.

We will have Nicole Literacki from the State Employee Charitable Campaign (SECC) and 2 other United Way representatives at our August CC meeting to kick-off the Retiree portion of the Campaign. Retirees have contributed every year in increasing numbers to this important endeavor. Please take some time to make a contribution to the SECC or one of their partner charities.

Don’t forget to vote in the primary on Tuesday, August 7th!

Editor’s note: Bob Kopasz is Chair of the Michigan SERA Council. He may be reached at P.O. Box 692, Mt. Morris, MI 48458; phone 810/240-8380.