From Our Partners
Darlene Kirkpatrick | Division Manager, Third Party and Spending Account Administration, ASEBP
Are Benefits the Missing Piece
of Your Retirement Puzzle?
Ah, retirement! You likely planned for it for
quite some time — saving, making investments,
ensuring you have what you need for a long,
enjoyable break from the day-to-day hustle
and bustle of the workplace. After years of hard
work, we all know you have earned it, so it is
important to make sure you have every piece of
the retirement puzzle in place by rounding out
your safety net with retiree benefits. Living in
Canada has afforded us a pretty fantastic health
care system — one that covers quite a bit of our
health care costs so we don’t necessarily end up
paying out of our own pocket if we become ill.
But, even as great as universal health care is, it
doesn’t cover everything. Your day-to-day health
and wellness costs like prescriptions, dental visits,
eye glasses, physiotherapy and much more are not
covered by provincial health insurance and can be
quite costly, especially as you age. To ensure your
retirement nest egg doesn’t take any unnecessary
hits because of medical expenses, your best bet is
to invest in quality, supplemental health benefits.
Enter the ARTA Retiree Benefits Plan! Since
you are already an ARTA member, you likely
already know that the ARTA Retiree Benefits Plan
offers a wide range of coverage options tailored
to meet your needs — including four extended
health care (EHC) plans (two of which include
emergency travel coverage) and three dental care
plans. From prescription medication coverage
to hearing aids and vision care, each plan offers
a different level of coverage so you can choose
what works best for you. Learn more about the
different benefit plans available on the Benefits at
62 | arta.net
a Glance page of ARTA’s website, arta.net. You
can find this page in the Retiree Benefits section,
under Member Services.
What’s the next step, if, after reviewing all of
your benefit options, you have decided you want
to enrol? For those who have just retired, you can
apply for ARTA retiree benefits without supplying
medical evidence of good health as long as you are
within sixty days of the expiration of your, or your
spouse’s, employer group benefit plan.
If you have been enjoying retirement for a while
now and you are outside of this sixty-day window,
you will have to supply medical evidence of good
health to enrol in EHC with travel coverage,
and dental maximums will be pro-rated the
first calendar year you have coverage, based on
when you enrol. For example, if you enrol in
dental coverage in July, your maximums will be
pro-rated to 50%. Instead of an $800 maximum
for major restorative services, like crowns, you’ll
have $400. It definitely pays to enrol in a benefit
plan as soon as your retirement begins.
If you are interested in enrolling, simply
contact an ARTA benefit plan coordinator at
[email protected] or 1-855-444-ARTA (2782)
or contact the ARTA head office directly at
[email protected] or 1-855-212-2400. Either office
will be more than happy to discuss the available
benefit plans with you and can send you an
enrollment package with all the details.
As the old adage goes, there’s no time like the
present — especially when it comes to ensuring
you have the health benefits you need to make
retirement living as stress-free as possible. ●