Teacher Retirement fund "in good shape"

(Texas Alliance for Retired Americans)

Retiree Activist Elaine Jones forwards this important information for Texas teacher retirees:

TRS Retirees Receive Update on Health Plan: Texas Teacher Retirement System officials reported today that the TRS-Care health plan for retired school employees is "in good shape" financially for now, though in the long run additional funding will be required to sustain the program in its current form. More and more TRS-Care participants are aging into Medicare eligibility, shifting costs of care onto that federal program and allowing TRS to forgo rate increases without reducing benefits. The Medicare drug benefit also has relieved the TRS-Care program of a significant share of the cost of retirees' prescriptions.

At today's meeting of the TRS Retiree Advisory Committee, made up of retirees appointed by the TRS board, agency officials said this financial situation allows them to recommend to the board no increase in premiums for TRS-Care for the coming fiscal year, starting in September. In fact, they are going to propose a new benefit relating to preventative care. We'll provide details in an upcoming Hotline.

However, TRS-Care--unlike the TRS pension fund--has not been exempted from a recent cost-cutting directive from the governor, lieutenant governor, and House speaker. Under their edict, most state agencies must come up with cuts of 5 percent in the cost of programs for the current two-year budget cycle that began last September.

TRS officials today opined that this requested cut over the short term is not unreasonable. However, TRS will still need to ask the legislature next session to address the lack of sufficient longer-term funding for TRS-Care.