I don't know what the current health insurance coverage is for employees, but I've noticed that RMAP (retiree insurance) is quite a bit different than the insurance I had as a full time employee. The RMAP deductibles are higher, and once you meet the deductible, you still have to pay 20% of every medical bill (versus 0% when I was an employee). I've had alot of fellow current and ex employees rave about how good RMAP is, but I'm skeptical....seems like I could similar deals on healthcare.gov.
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Let me get this straight... you were under the impression that cisco’s Retiree medical assistance program (RMAP) would afford you identical coverage to that of an active employee?????
This has never been the case. And the active employee plans are nowhere near as good as they used to be. None of them have a 1000% coverage plan anymore. So you are getting the lesser of less.
RMAP didn't make sense for me. Premiums too high for too little coverage. I did COBRA for as long as I could then my wife was able to get insurance through her employer. It wasn't great so we opted for heathcare.gov in 2018. We qualified for that because her employer was willing to cut her hours so she didn't qualify for benefits. The healthcare.gov coverage was far worse than what her employer offered (very high premiums and very high deductibles) so in 2019 we went back to her employer's coverage. I like the idea of keeping your options open for RMAP. I didn't realize that was an option.
I suspect you are correct. I signed up to maintain eligibility to access RMAP, but only carry vision coverage to keep my options open. I look at as "at least I can get insurance" if needed.
It could very well be you can do moderately better in the state health exchanges, but I suspect the comparison will vary greatly depending on the state you live in. My other concern is that the health system may go through another gyration where the state exchange options morph into something less than they are today. At least RMAP gets you some coverage.
In any case, I am sure it is a less complete package than straight employee coverage. But I appreciate you pointing this out as someone actually utilizing the plan.