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Last Call for the Retirement-Medical Gravy Train

Federal reimbursement for high-cost early retirees will begin soon.

BY: | September 9, 2010



Name

Girard Miller

Girard Miller is the Public Money columnist for GOVERNING and a senior strategist at the PFM Group.

For those who've been asleep at the switch, this is a friendly reminder that time is running out to file applications for federal assistance if your government pays early retirees more than $15,000 in medical benefits. Many public employers provide some form of OPEB ("other post employment benefits") to retirees under age 65, and the new health care reform act (ACA as it is known) provides a $5 billion fund for private and public employers with high-cost benefits plans.

Application forms and more information can be found at the website for the Departrment of Health and Human Services.

Don't get your hopes up if your benefits run less than $15,000 per individual, as the program generally applies only to early retirees with higher costs. But if your benefits plan is that generous and you have not yet filed the requisite paperwork, your taxpayers will not be happy that you failed to obtain your share of the pie.


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