Here’s an article that acknowledges the possibility (although rarity) of continued health care coverage by the employer for early retirees:


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahUKEwietaOun7jdAhXSJt8KHXblD84QFjAAegQIAxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.investopedia.com%2Farticles%2Fpersonal-finance%2F080516%2Ftop-3-health-insurance-options-if-you-retire-early.asp&usg=AOvVaw1KTX6wLni8iyhTCH_s2gbU

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What insurance company allows that? Unless it’s a govt or military type job, I can’t see this being allowed. I know- we investigated it and the ins co said it’s not legal to insure no employees in the private sector excluding cobra .

OP here. I assure you it’s legal for group health insurance plans to cover retired employees. Ours is a very reputable law firm and insurance company and neither is hiding anything from anybody or each other.

Same at my firm. Retired partners can stay on health insurance until they become eligible for medicare, at their own cost. Been like that forever.

Anonymous wrote:What insurance company allows that? Unless it’s a govt or military type job, I can’t see this being allowed. I know- we investigated it and the ins co said it’s not legal to insure no employees in the private sector excluding cobra .

OP here. I assure you it’s legal for group health insurance plans to cover retired employees. Ours is a very reputable law firm and insurance company and neither is hiding anything from anybody or each other.

Op my parents are elderly and require round the clock care and it's costing 200k to do that in home plus their other expenses. I'd work a couple more years at least.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Full disclosure: I've been on unpaid sabbatical for a year and with the year now up I have to either return to work or retire. I don't want to return and I've now decided that I won't.

This info is really critical--in additional to all of the financial questions, you have had a chance to see if you like life without working. Some people can be a bit lost, but apparently you're not one of them. Congratulations!

What insurance company allows that? Unless it’s a govt or military type job, I can’t see this being allowed. I know- we investigated it and the ins co said it’s not legal to insure no employees in the private sector excluding cobra .

No. I'd either work at least 3 more years (and I'm guessing it would be more bearable if you had an end in sight) or try to find another job that paid less but I enjoyed more.

OP here. Full disclosure: I've been on unpaid sabbatical for a year and with the year now up I have to either return to work or retire. I don't want to return and I've now decided that I won't.

Anonymous wrote:I would quit. You could have some silent cancer already slowly attacking you. No one knows how many years they have left. You have plenty of money to live well even assuming the market takes a dive.

yes! my first job out of college was as an oncology RN at Hopkins. One of my first patients was a DC law partner who was dying in his 50s of aggressive cancer. He told me "if I knew I only had 55 years on this planet I wouldn't have wasted so much time working".
I've never forgotten him.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'm leaving. Thanks to everyone who backed me up.

Yay, OP! We are living vicariously through you!

That, to my mind, is living the dream.

One more year and pay off the house, and call it a day!

OP here. My firm is very large and has forever offered health insurance to all of its retired employees, not just the lawyers, so long as you pay the full premium. The full premium is probably out of reach for most retired employees, but not for retired partners, so most employees don’t retire before they are Medicare eligible.

The firm has been around for over 100 years and I am confident it will survive (and keep this policy in place) for another ten. It’s not likely to cut off retired partners at the knees. If anything, if it ever changed the policy it would grandfather previously retired folks in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We retired in our 40s. Please explain how your employer can keep you on the health insurance forever legally? That’s the problem no one has addressed that I saw. What’s the plan if the law firm goes under, they switch insurers, management changes and they won’t insure you anymore, insurance co audits and discovers you’re not there, etc.

Not OP; in my line of work, health insurance is vested so I can take it with me into retirement as long as I pay my current portion of the premium. The employer continues to pay its share in my retirement. The only way I could lose my health insurance is if I let my premium lapse.

That is most likely not the case for OP - he will probably convert to a different position (senior counsel, of counsel, senior lawyer, whatever, and so remain technically "employed" and eligible for health insurance. If't possible the firm changes its collective mind or goes under, but that's unlikely, and if so, he'll have to purchase private coverage.

Anonymous wrote:We retired in our 40s. Please explain how your employer can keep you on the health insurance forever legally? That’s the problem no one has addressed that I saw. What’s the plan if the law firm goes under, they switch insurers, management changes and they won’t insure you anymore, insurance co audits and discovers you’re not there, etc.

Not OP; in my line of work, health insurance is vested so I can take it with me into retirement as long as I pay my current portion of the premium. The employer continues to pay its share in my retirement. The only way I could lose my health insurance is if I let my premium lapse.

We retired in our 40s. Please explain how your employer can keep you on the health insurance forever legally? That’s the problem no one has addressed that I saw. What’s the plan if the law firm goes under, they switch insurers, management changes and they won’t insure you anymore, insurance co audits and discovers you’re not there, etc.