Take Care of Yourself Today for a Healthy Tomorrow

When you came to work for the City, one of the many things that may have attracted you to the job was the great retirement plan. Part of this retirement plan package presently includes health benefits for you and your dependents, which are administered by LACERS Health Benefits Administration Division.

The estimated cost for providing health care (medical, dental, and vision) to LACERS retirees for 2007 is $65.8 million in total premiums, an 11.7% increase oer last year. With health care costs increasing every year, it becomes more of a challenge for LACERS to pay all the costs without the help of retirees. LACERS is currently paying about 93% of the overall medical premium costs, having increased the retiree maximum medical subsidy from $928 to $983 this year. Retirees experienced their share of the costs in increased paycheck deductions and co-pays. While many organizations are trimming their health benefits, eliminating health benefits for future retirees, or eliminating health benefits altogether, LACERS continues to explore other options and develop new strategies to help manage future medical costs so that current and future retirees, like you, may have affordable health coverage.

Just as important is how you and other active Members manage your health now. As an active employee, you can help to manage future medical costs by being proactive and maintaining your health now and into retirement. Medical insurance premiums are determined by many different factors, including use of facilities, numbers and types of claims, and use of prescription drugs. Due to continued increases in health care costs, the number of claims per retiree and the number of large claims (over $200,000), our premium rates continue to increase. Ultimately, the healthier you are at retirement, the more likely you will help keep your retiree medical premiums lower. We still encourage you to use your health insurance – just make sure you are making proactive steps towards becoming a better health care consumer.

A recent study conducted by the healthcare company Humana shows that consumers who changed their behavior by moving toward the use of more preventive services, with less reliance on costly after-the-fact interventions, affected the reduction of annualized health care cost trends (cost trends in the 5-6% range compared to the national health cost inflation rate of 12-14% during the same period).

Here are some tips on how you can become a better health care consumer:

Take a health risk appraisal and then follow-up with your physician on any areas of concern.

Get an annual physical exam – you may have an undiagnosed condition.
Use preventive care services (e.g., cancer screenings).

Take advantage of your current health plan’s wellness and care management programs.

Minimize the affects of any chronic conditions (e.g., diabetes, asthma, coronary artery disease, heart failure) through proper diet, use of prescription medications, exercise, etc. As many as 80% of the chronic illnesses that afflict older individuals are estimated to be related to social, environmental, and behavioral factors, particularly poor health habits (Social Gerontology, 5th edition – Nancy Hooyman, H. Asuman Kiyak).

Even though retirement may seem far off for many of you, it's never too early to take care of you.