Articles for category Retirees
CalPERS -- The California Public Employees' Retirement System's (CalPERS) Pension and Health Benefits Committee (PHBC) recommended June 16 the Pension Fund's Board of Administration adopt health care premium rate and plan changes for 2016. The recommendations include adopting a Medicare plan alternative - UnitedHealthcare's (UHC) Medicare Advantage Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan - and eliminating Medicare Advantage plans currently offered by Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, Health Net and Sharp. Kaiser Permanente will continue to offer its Medicare Advantage plan and the CalPERS PPO Medicare Supplement plans will remain in place.
CalPERS' decision to adopt UHC's PPO could save a minimum of $24 million if at least 40,000 members move into this new Medicare plan option.
[Read More...]
Sacramento Bee -- Thousands of calls to California’s Medi-Cal complaint lines don’t get through, and thousands more that manage to ring the call center go unanswered, according to a new state audit.
For the year that ended in January 2015, the phone system to the Medi-Cal Ombudsman Office rejected up to 45,000 calls in a month, State Auditor Elaine Howle said in her report to lawmakers.
[Read More...]
The following PDF is a list of Bills that CSR is supporting, opposing or watching.
[Read More...]
"Inadequate financial preparation for retirement is a growing national concern. Defined benefit plans are the most cost-efficient way to save for retirement and should remain an important tool in retirement planning. All employees – whether in the public or private sectors – should have effective means to pursue retirement security," CalPERS said in a statement issued June 4.
[Read More...]
For the third time in four years, advocates for altering public pensions have a plan they want to put to a statewide vote.
But this time the proposal by pension-change advocates Chuck Reed and Carl DeMaio has a new twist: Pensions and other retirement benefits themselves would automatically become a matter of ballot-box politics by requiring voter approval any time government officials sought to upgrade benefits.
[Read More...]
Longtime CSR Board Member Jerry Evans, who was the District B director and the board’s former executive vice president and vice president, passed away suddenly on May 30.
[Read More...]
The following PDF is a list of Bills that CSR is supporting, opposing, or watching.
[Read More...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday in favor of participants in employee retirement plans who object to companies' investment decisions that eat into retirement savings.
The justices revived claims by current and former employees of energy company Edison International. The employees argued that the company chose mutual funds with excessive fees.
[Read More...]
On Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) released the revised version of his fiscal year 2015-2016 budget plan, which includes several health care proposals, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The revised $169 billion budget is more than $4 billion larger than the original proposal unveiled in January (Megerian, Los Angeles Times, 5/14). The revised plan would increase health and social services spending by about $1.7 billion (Richman, San Jose Mercury News, 5/14).
[Read More...]
Henry Jones has been declared the unofficial winner in the 2015 election of the retired member representative seat on the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) Board of Administration. There was no opposition to Jones' re-election and pending certification of the election by California's Secretary of State, he will begin a new four-year term of service on the Board on January 16, 2016.
"I'm honored to serve another term and represent our retirees," said Jones, CalPERS Vice President. "I look forward to continuing to work in my leadership role alongside my colleagues on the Board to ensure the long-term sustainability of the pension fund and our health care program."
[Read More...]