Insurance irks police, fire retirees

The move to extend the solvency of the health-care fund for retired Ohio police officers and firefighters has left some retirees feeling queasy.

The board of the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund acted earlier this year to shift from a self-insured group policy to providing a monthly stipend to allow retirees to buy their own health insurance beginning in 2019.

The change is projected to reduce the fund’s costs by $25 million, to $108 million next year, with projected savings increasing the life span of the near-$900 million fund from nine years to 15 years.

But the coming change has not been without problems for some former first-responders, led by complaints about the performance of London-based Aon, the company hired to help retirees find and buy insurance policies.

Some retirees also have complained about a lack of insurance providers in some counties, while some believe that the fixed stipend for retirees younger than 65 and not yet covered by Medicare is inadequate.

“Non-Medicare people, in particular, are running into every imaginable problem from cost to coverage to logistics,” said Michael Taylor, president of the Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters.

“Aon has failed miserably” in helping pension-fund retirees find appropriate private insurance and Medicare supplemental policies, Taylor said, adding that pension officials are “doing what they can”