Editorial: Health district retirees were owed earlier notice
By The Herald Editorial Board
The scramble during “open enrollment” for health care insurance can be harried enough as employees and retirees sift through information and the details of various plans. For recent retirees and those turning 65, Medicare’s open enrollment allows less than two months — between Oct. 15 and a Dec. 7 deadline — to research, make decisions and complete applications.
For 65 retirees of the Snohomish Health District their window was even shorter, as they weren’t expecting to have to consider their options for health coverage until notified they were losing their state Public Employee Benefits Board plans at the end of the year. And, at the earliest, that notice didn’t arrive in mailboxes until Nov. 16.
As reported by The Herald’s Joy Borkholder on Saturday, the merger of the Snohomish Health District into Snohomish County has meant that as of Jan. 1, when the district becomes a county department, those retirees lose their state-administered PEBB coverage, leaving them to find coverage under Medicare or an exchange plan, with the option to continue current benefits through a temporary federal COBRA plan, although at much higher premiums.
The merger has meant that current health district employees will become county employees with the same pay and vacation benefits and the health insurance coverage provided to county employees, but the county is unable to continue the district retirees’ PEBB coverage or extend county retirement benefits to them.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-health-district-retirees-were-owed-earlier-notice/
