Please help me understand what the benefits are if I'm 50 and they bridge me to 55 with pension benefits. I understand the Medical component but not the Pension benefits. Thanks for your help!
My understanding is that you get treated as if you are 55 in the pension now, not in 5 years. Read the pension conditions for age 55 as if you are.
It is not a bridge to pention, it is a bridge to retirement. you get one year at subsidised coverage for medical dental then the retiree coverage kicks in you get to have the retiree medical payment plan, there is no dental but you can sign up for a plan which covers Merck Retirees Your life insurance gets changed from the group to an individual plan Whole life for the regular portion of your salary and if you had additional coverage it you can change that to a 30 year term life insurance. So far doing a bit of research, the retiree coverage for family is about $100 less than straight COBRA per month for me that would have been almost $1200/month, COBRA was $1300/month. You can do much better with a sliver plan in the market. This also depends on if you are of age to get medicare, if you are the price drops dramatically as medicare becomes your primary and the retiree insurance becomes secondary insurance. I have not gotten the info on the price for the switch of the regular salary for life insurance but the additional insurance for a 30 year term for $200K was to be about $2500/quarter from Prudential. Found a much lower rate from another company. Overall the "bridge" is not the best way to go for health dental or life you can do much better by going outside of this plan. The "bridge is more like a rope, with a noose at the end. for me I can do much better with any of the merck retirement plans by shopping for myself.
Hold on, do not let go of the company medical insurance until you compare not just the cost to you but what you are getting for the money. I realize the medical is a little pricey but my husband's company's insurance was $1600 per month for family of 4 compared to ours $1000 and the coverage was awful.Merck has great insurance albeit not as good as in past but much, much better than other plans. DO YOUR HOMEWORK DON'T JUST TRUST BLINDLY. DO THE RESEARCH! I have young children and medical coverage is important. Good Luck!
You can get the same or better coverage for a better rate in the open market than Merk's bridged plan. but do the research it all depends on your state and the coverage you want
