Governor Mills signed into law a measure that will FINALLY increase the amount the State pays for the healthcare of qualified retired teachers and ed techs (IIs and IIIs). The new law will increase the amount the State pays for our retired teacher/ed tech health insurance plan from 45% to 55%. This effort comes after years of advocacy from the Maine Education Association.
While there was a bill to make the same change stalled on the Special Appropriations table, yesterday Representative Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) made an amendment to another spending bill that would move the State share for our retired healthcare program from 45% to 55%. The amendment gained strong bipartisan support with a vote of 128-3 (you can see how your representative voted here: Roll-call Details (maine.gov) and after swift approval in the Senate, it was later signed into law by the Governor.
The MEA will work with the MEA Benefits Trust, Maine Public Employees Retirement System, and the state regarding implementation. The new law is set to become effective October 18 of this year, but MEA has some work to do to understand how this will impact payments, so please be patient.
Many thanks to the hundreds of retired educators who have consistently written their legislators and made the case for protecting and improving our retirement benefits.
Health Insurance Cost Update
