It’s likely your retiree health insurance is negotiated by your teachers union. It will be part of the package that the union negotiated with the state.
In my husband’s case, salaried employees were let out of the company’s health care insurance program. Union retirees were not.
They aren’t unionized, but they are HUGE so I think size alone holds a lot of sway in negotiations. We are only a couple of years from Medicare so just trying to hold on.
I’ve seen ACA policies that are $4k+/month for two people. These are platinum level plans with no deductibles and no copays and very low OOP max I don’t know how popular they are, but someone must be buying them or then wouldn’t offer them.
That is much like the plan we have, however, our plan is self funded by our company, with the insurance company just paid to administer. So I really don’t understand why it’s so expensive.
Is the covered employee and retiree population older and sicker, or otherwise high users of health care?
Not on ACA, but I looked at 2026 ACA plan costs today to check costs for one person in my area…
| Age | Plan type | 2026 yearly cost |
|---|---|---|
| 27 | cheapest minimum | $3.6k |
| 27 | cheapest bronze | $5.2k |
| 27 | most expensive platinum | $14.8k |
| 63 | cheapest bronze | $14.3k |
| 63 | most expensive platinum | $41.6k |
I don’t know why it would be. It’s a large company, with a diverse employee and retiree group. No particular reason why they’d be more high risk than any other group.
I do wonder if it’s the company trying to take advantage of us. We don’t know what the appropriate price should be and I don’t know how there’s any way we could, we just have to trust. We have a number of plans that we can pick from, and they raised the cost of every single one exactly $271 a month, which makes absolutely zero sense, because they are very different plans. Problem is, after you retire, the union doesn’t give a crap, because you’re no longer paying dues, so I doubt that they would spend one single second investigating this.
I would think any plan covering retirees would have an older, sicker population, practically by definition.
I think most companies have combo employee/retiree plans, right?
Not exactly. It covers mostly active employees, and the only retired employees are those who retired before age 65 and their spouses (not a large number). You go off the plan as soon as you turn 65.
Dang—we’re lucky our share on our premium for our local FEHB BCBS plan ONLY went up 13% plus increases most other years. The amounts all of you are paying are just SO high! I can see why some people are uninsured—they just can’t handle these insane premiums (which provide questionable coverage at best and often have high deductibles). Our plan coverage remains largely the same as it was, but copays for tier 4 & 5 meds increased.
I got lucky, too. My BC/BS plan (Medicare Supplement) is only going up about 10%. I’m worried about S’s plan. He has a not too great plan through Obamacare. (S works but his job does not provide benefits, his pay is low, yes he is looking for another one). The good thing is that he is young , but he needs decent coverage for some medical issues he has.
I looked at the ACA plans for us for “giggles” - not that there’s anything remotely funny about it. Costs for both H & I together were about $1400/month (we’re in our 50s), but that is with a $10K deductible and a max $20K out of pocket. The deductible is combined at least.
With my employer, we have a $5000 per person deductible, but then that’s it. Everything excluding drugs is covered 100% (in-network of course). For drugs, you must pay 100% of costs until you hit your $5K, then you pay on a typical tier schedule. Our premiums are $375/month, but my employer pays close to $1700/month and also kicks in $2000/year to my HSA. Our premium went up about $15/month this year. No complaints from me.
Younger S’ is going up about $30/month at his Federal contractor job. He’s happy because that’s all that changed. Their VERY generous retirement matching and educational benefits are staying for now. Considering they lost 30% of their 10K employees this year and a bunch are now furloughed starting this week, he is thankful!
Older S’ is staying the same. $1 per paycheck. Huge company with mostly young people. Not surprising.
My employer retiree health insurance (pre-65) went up less than 10%, so I’m feeling fortunate. (Currently $905/month for just me, going up to $993; on Cobra 5 years ago it was about $450.. then I think $750). Deductible is $3550, which I never come close to - great actually, since being healthy is a good thing. Max OOP $6850. Fortunately I do have a fund set up when the company eliminated retiree medical supplement. I retired young, so it did not have enough funds to cover all the post-Cobra years… but it helps - very thankful for that.
Good points of my high deductible plan: 1) Most preventative care is covered almost fully. 2) For some reason prescriptions are covered really well. My regular glaucoma eyedrops (generic latanoprost) are usually just $6/3months. And my Target/CVS bill this weekend for three prescriptions (antibiotic, cough med, abuterol) was under $5.
My plan is similar. Low deductible ($1050), OOP will go up to $10k, preventative care covered 100%. No copay for my first five office visits, after that $10, specialists are $50. Once deductible is met, cardiology imaging 50%. I am anticipating a procedure next year so definitely want the best coverage I can afford. H wasn’t planning on retirement and I was covered under his health plan. His Medicare eligibility impacted my COBRA coverage - as in, I didn’t have any. The last job I had that provided health benefits ended in 2006.
This is what my company sent out to us.
“Despite continued increases in healthcare expenses across the industry, xxxxx continues to cover more than 80% of the total premium cost. The employee contribution rates for 2026 will be:
Coverage Type Monthly Premium
Employee (no H.S.A.) $135.00
Employee $275.00
Two Party $460.00
Family $655.00
These new rates take effect January 1, 2026.
In addition to maintaining strong premium support, xxxxx will increase its contribution to employee HSA accounts in 2026:
Coverage Type Annual HSA Contribution
Employee $1,700
Two Party $2,516
Family $3,400”
I am over 65 and just started getting social security and was automatically enrolled into Medicare Part A. Therefore I can no longer make contributions to my HSA nor can the company. As listed above the company only offers a non HSA rate for an employee who is only insuring themselves. Because of getting Medicare I am not getting the $2516 for my HSA that others are getting. I am in the process of trying to get them to give two party and family employees a non HSA rate similar to what they are offering the non HSA rate for the Employee only insured. Anyway that is why I was looking at ACA insurance just to see if that was a possibility. Hopefully they will consider my situation, however even if I pay the listed two party rate it is only about 1/4 of what I would pay thru ACA and the deductible and out of pocket max are about 1/3 of what ACA is offering on the bronze plan. I had no idea what some folks out there are having to pay. I don’t have a lot to complain about really.
I went on Medicare in October and I can’t yet figure out what my total monthly cost are. i had been paying 1300 for the cheapest bronze plan on the marketplace. My new costs are less but not as much as I had hoped. I’m subject to IRMAA.
My husband is paying around 1300 for his bronze plan. High deductible and pretty high copayments. We have not had group insurance since the 80’s. No dental or vision insurance since the 80’s.
I just checked our IBX plan and the premium is going up 20% for next year. Unbelievable. I think it would be financially a net gain if I quit my job and took a job at Trader Joe’s with benefits.
I guess I’m “lucky” - I will pay $408 a month for a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan with a $350 deductible and $6,000 maximum out of pocket costs each year. Prior to going on Medicare my husband paid the same as I pay.
Now he’s on a less expensive plan they recommend to supplement Medicare Part B. He’s learning about his new plans as he goes - he just found out one of his medications will be way more expensive with his new arrangement than it was with just BC/BS.
So I went and looked at prices. 
The ACA plan we are on is no longer available because the subsidies have expired. While expensive ($33k/year) it had some nice features like zero deductibles and low copays.
The plan we were on 2 years ago is a bronze HSA plan with $4k deductible each. It cost about $21.5k/year then, now it’s $31k/year - 44% higher (although we are two years older).
Crazy.