The Gerontologist, Vol 32, Issue 5 693-703, Copyright © 1992 by The Gerontological Society of America
Employer-sponsored postretirement health benefits: not your mother's medigap plan
GA Jensen and MA Morrisey
Wayne State University, Institute of Gerontology, Detroit, MI 48202.
Using nationally representative data, we report the prevalence of retiree
health insurance as a fringe benefit in private and public settings, and
take an in-depth look at its content. We examine how it coordinates with
Medicare to characterize the "total insurance" of beneficiaries who hold
these supplements. Retiree health coverage is now widespread and typical
benefits are far more generous than those found in medigap policies, the
other major type of Medicare supplement. When a typical retiree plan is
overlaid on Medicare, the resulting total insurance benefits are more
generous than those held by either the working nonelderly or beneficiaries
with a medigap supplement.
