HR3590 Health Care Bill & Government Health Insurance

A post by Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke on HealthCare.gov announces the acceptance of almost 2,000 employers and unions in to the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP).

The Program is a provision within the Affordable Care Act, which aims to assist employers with providing high-quality health benefits to employees who opt to retire early.

Early retirees are retired workers who are aged 55 or older; they are too young to qualify for Medicare, which means that they will need to independently purchase health care insurance until such time that they can get Medicare.

Without a patch to this coverage gap, some early retirees may “see their life savings disappear because of medical bills and exorbitant rates in the individual health insurance market,” Locke wrote. The program is open to the following: employers, including large and small businesses, State and local governments, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and labor unions.

The aim of the $5 billion program is to encourage employers to allow early retirees to maintain their – and their family’s – coverage, at least until the Health Insurance Exchanges are established by 2014.

The announcement regarding the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program was made a few months ago, and the administration has since received applications “from more than half of Fortune 500 companies, all major unions, and government entities in all 50 States and the District of Columbia.”

The Department of Health and Human Services also announced two new information tools that may be used by employers and unions that are interested about ERRP: the website www.ERRP.gov, and the hotline 877-574-ERRP.