Costello Ann
Barney School of Business, University of Hartford, USA.
Benefits Q. 2010;26(4):50-61.
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 provided a subsidy to employers that offered a retiree health prescription coverage benefit actuarially equivalent to Medicare Part D. This article reviews the development of the subsidy, the support by the federal government and the issues that have arisen. It also presents analysis of data from a set of companies that offered retiree health in 2006 and 2007. The data show widespread acceptance of the subsidy and continuance of prescription coverage; however, companies that did not take the subsidy were more likely to be smaller and in less robust financial health. Analysis of a subset of the companies shows the magnitude of the benefits paid yearly and the accounting liability caused by retiree health relative to the size of the subsidy. The author concludes that the potential success or failure of the federal subsidy in preserving retiree health benefits will not be known for years. Nevertheless, with the elimination of the deductibility of the subsidy in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), employers surely will reexamine their offer of prescription coverage to retirees.
2003年的《医疗保险处方药、改进与现代化法案》向那些为退休人员提供与医疗保险D部分精算等价的健康处方保险福利的雇主提供补贴。本文回顾了该补贴的发展情况、联邦政府的支持以及出现的问题。文章还对2006年和2007年提供退休人员健康保险的一组公司的数据进行了分析。数据显示，该补贴得到了广泛接受，处方保险得以延续；然而，未领取补贴的公司规模往往较小，财务状况也不那么稳健。对部分公司的分析表明了每年支付的福利金额以及退休人员健康保险相对于补贴规模所造成的会计负债。作者得出结论，联邦补贴在保留退休人员健康福利方面的潜在成败在数年内仍不明朗。尽管如此，随着《患者保护与平价医疗法案》（PPACA）中取消了补贴的可抵扣性，雇主肯定会重新审视他们为退休人员提供的处方保险。
