{"id":194154,"date":"2015-03-18T04:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T18:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=194154"},"modified":"2015-03-18T04:00:51","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T18:00:51","slug":"new-dof-memo-clarifies-aetna-rates-for-govt-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/new-dof-memo-clarifies-aetna-rates-for-govt-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"New DOF memo clarifies Aetna rates for govt workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Department of Finance has released a new memo offering lower insurance rates for government employees and retirees should they sign up for an insurance policy with Aetna Global.<\/p>\n

An earlier memo showed higher insurance rates that infuriated government workers and lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\"Igisomar\"<\/a>
Igisomar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan), the old memo issued last March 13 contained typographical errors. The new memo issued March 16 amended the errors, he said.<\/p>\n

For instance, the old memo showed that an active government worker with a family needs to pay $485.65 (for 22 pay periods) if he or she chooses Aetna\u2019s \u201clow plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should the government worker with a family get the \u201chigh plan,\u201d the rate shoots all the way up to $820.94 (for 22 pay periods).<\/p>\n

However, in the new and updated memo, a government worker with a family only needs to pay $242.83 (for 22 pay periods) for the \u201clow plan,\u201d and $410.47 for the \u201chigh plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Igisomar said the rates for the \u201clow plan\u201d are lower than previous rates in 2014. For instance, the family plan of $242.83 is $72.04 lower than the $314.87 rates in 2014.<\/p>\n

Those getting the \u201chigh plans,\u201d however, do not have a decrease in their payments.<\/p>\n

For government retirees, the old memo showed that a retiree with a family needs to pay a $534.22 for the \u201clow plan\u201d and a whopping $903.03 for the \u201chigh plan\u201d in 20 pay periods.<\/p>\n

But the new memo showed that retirees with a family only needs to pay $267.11 for the \u201clow plan\u201d and $451.52 for the \u201chigh plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2015 rates for retirees are also significantly lower than rates in 2014, Igisomar said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Rep. Edwin K. Propst slammed Aetna saying that the rates were not affordable to most government employees, particularly those with families.<\/p>\n

He warned that by increasing the rates, \u201cmost healthy, young families are going to cancel their health coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Aetna insurance is not mandatory for government employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Finance has released a new memo offering lower insurance rates for government…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":194157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2695,55],"class_list":["post-194154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-aetna-global","tag-health-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}