To recapitulate, University of Georgia retirees, like those throughout the University System of Georgia, currently have a Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance policy through USG that basically pays everything Medicare doesn’t cover. The retirees pay for the BCBS policy, as they also pay a premium for their Medicare coverage. They also have a USG drug coverage plan through Silverscript that considerably defrays the cost of prescription drugs.

This is the same coverage the retirees had while they were working, and upon retirement they didn’t have to go through any readmittance process. Insurance while working and afterward was a part of their contract with the university and with the university system.

In February, thanks to a leaked university system memo, Flagpole broke the news that the university system had been planning in secret to end the current insurance arrangement and require retirees to buy their own insurance through an insurance exchange managed by Aon Hewitt, a company that describes itself as “the leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing services.” Aon Hewitt had been advising the university system for years that it could save money by letting somebody else manage its retiree health insurance.

Once the news was out, the university system scrambled to bring its 30,000 retirees up to date on its plans, and UGA even set up a well staffed retiree information center out on the Atlanta Highway next to Batteries Plus.

Now, retirees are in the phase where they are talking by telephone with Aon representatives and deciding which plans to buy with the monthly stipend paid into a health reimbursement account on their behalf by the university system in lieu of the current coverage.

Probably the main problem with the system so far is the difficulty of getting back in touch with Aon by telephone when problems arise. Joe Wisenbaker, who writes for Flagpole about retirement issues as “The Grumpy Retiree,” has pointed out on his Facebook page with the same name the sheer number of work hours it takes Aon to cover that many retirees with telephone contact.

Joe, a stats guy, concludes: “To get 30,000 hours of ‘counseling’ worked in they then need to have something like 31 people devoted to doing this work EVERY available hour. Then there's the follow-up calls. And, that's factoring in ZERO efforts from people like us trying to call them with our questions. Nor does it take into account lunch/dinner breaks or trips to the bathroom.”

For more on Joe’s personal difficulties in getting through to Aon by phone, be sure to read on his Facebook page the episode entitled, “The Grumpy Retiree Gets Pissed.” And you, of course, can ask questions and join in the conversation through the comments on the page.

There is on the Aon individual retiree web site a handy chat button under the “Help” heading that gets quick results for those who can’t get through by phone.

Joe has delved into the whole insurance changeover and has sniffed out and illuminated problem areas that people are encountering. in a post to The Grumpy Reitree Facebook page on Oct. 27, Joe summarized the problems with the way the University System of Georgia has treated its retirees. "The termination of the health plans for University System retirees has been on the books for several years, though being unannounced till Pete McCommons was able to blow the whistle on it in the Flagpole earlier this year. It isn’t obviously political in nature. After all, it wasn’t mandated by the Georgia legislature or the Governor’s office. It has its roots more deeply inthe culture being promoted among those charged with responsibility for the stewardship of the System and comes from a corporate climate that places no value whatsoever on promises made for decades to employees but, seemingly, without legal obligation. The retirees are being offered but one take-it-or-leave-it option involving a fixed-cost (to the System) Health Reimbursement Account that can be used to purchase Medicare Advantage, Medigap and/or Medicare Part D drug plans not on the open market, but in a ‘private market’ created by one of the very same companies that has, for decades, promoted the idea of the ‘unsustainability’ of health benefits for government, university and non-profit retirees. The System ‘promises’ to provide annual contributions to those HRA accounts in the future, but no ‘promise’ of their keeping up with rising costs. Of course, none of the ‘promises’ are any more legally binding on the System than their original ‘promise’ of health plans for retirees in the first place."

Many retirees are pretty well satisfied with the new plans they are getting, though they tend to be in the younger group. Unlike the current BCBS setup, the new plan gets more expensive the older the retiree is.

Perhaps the biggest news that has come out of this whole ordeal so far is that university system retirees do not have to buy their insurance through the Aon exchange. Buying only one item, such as a drug plan, makes them eligible for the university system health maintenance supplement, leaving them free to find a Medigap or Medicare Advantage plan through their own insurance agent on the open market. Indications are that there are better prices outside the Aon exchange. Before sealing the deal with Aon for a Medigap plan, it might be a good idea to check comparable coverage with your own agent.