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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

States-EERP

Idaho – Early Retiree Reinsurance Program

Rising health care costs have made it difficult for employers to provide quality, affordable health insurance for workers and retirees while also remaining competitive in the global marketplace. The percentage of large firms providing workers with retiree health coverage has dropped from 66 percent in 1988 to 29 percent in 2009.1 Health insurance premiums for older Americans are over four times more expensive than they are for young adults,2 and the deductible these enrollees pay is, on average, almost four times that for a typical employer-sponsored insurance plan.3

The Affordable Care Act creates a new program called the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program to help address this challenge that employers and older employees are facing.  The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program provides $5 billion in financial assistance to employers and unions to help them maintain coverage for early retirees age 55 and older who are not yet eligible for Medicare.

Businesses, other employers, and unions that are accepted into the program will receive reimbursement for medical claims for early retirees and their spouses, surviving spouses, and dependents. Savings can be used to reduce employer health care costs, provide premium relief to workers and families, or both. Applicants who are approved into the program receive reinsurance for the claims of high-cost retirees and their families (80 percent of the costs from $15,000 to $90,000). The program ends on January 1, 2014 when State health insurance Exchanges are up and running.

HHS has approved the following sponsors from Idaho. More applications are being approved each day.

  • Aberdeen School District #58
  • Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC
  • Blaine Co School Dist 61
  • Blue Cross of Idaho Health Service, Inc.
  • Boise Cascade, L.L.C.
  • Boise Paper Holdings, L.L.C.
  • Bonneville Joint School District #93
  • Caldwell School District #132
  • Cambridge School District 432J
  • Canyon-Owyhee School Service Agency
  • Cascade School District 422
  • City of Idaho Falls
  • City of Pocatello
  • Coeur d' Alene School District #271
  • College of Southern Idaho
  • Counties of Jefferson and Madison School District
  • Counties of Jerome Lincoln
  • County of Bear Lake School District #33
  • County of Bingham School District 55 (Blackfoot School District 55)
  • County of Boise School District 72
  • County of Camas School Dist 121
  • County of Canyon School Dist Class B 136 J
  • County of Latah 285 School District*
  • County of Latah School Dist 281
  • County of Madison Madison County School District 321
  • County of Nez Perce Independent School Dist. NO 1
  • County of Nezperce Culdesac Joint School District 342*
  • Culdesac Joint School District #342
  • Elmore County
  • Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company of Idaho
  • Filer School District #413
  • Fremont Madison Joint Schools
  • Fruitland School District #373
  • Idaho Association of School Administrators
  • Idaho Fall School District 91
  • Idaho Plumbers and Pipefitters Health and Welfare Agreement and Declaration of Trust
  • Idaho Power Company
  • Independent School District of Boise City No. 1
  • Independent School District of Emmett 221
  • Joint Hagerman School District No. 233
  • Joint School District 151
  • Joint School District 391
  • Joint School District No. 171
  • Joint School District No. 2
  • Kimberly School District #414
  • Kootenai School District #274
  • Kuna Joint School District 3
  • Lake Pend Oreille School District #84
  • Lakeland Joint School District  272
  • Marsh Valley JT School Dist No 21
  • Middleton School District #134
  • Mountain View School District 244
  • Mullan School District #392
  • Murtaugh Elementary School
  • Payette School District #371
  • Plummer-Worley School District #44
  • Post Falls School District 273
  • Regent of the University of Idaho
  • St. Maries School District #41
  • State of Idaho
  • Sugar-Salem School District 322
  • The Amalgamated Sugar Company LLC
  • Troy School District #287
  • Twin Falls School District #411
  • Vallivue School District 139*
  • Weiser School District #431
  • West Jefferson School District #253

[1] Kaiser / HRET. Employer Health Benefits: 2009 Survey.
[2] Center for Policy and Research. Individual Health Insurance 2009.
[3] Kaiser Family Foundation. 2010. Survey of People Who Purchase Their Own Insurance.

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