Thread regarding Ford layoffs

After some digging, I came to find out that yes, we do get the HRA $500 per month, and it brings your premium down BUT, if you will not have a significant income for this year (new job, social security, 401k distributions) you can turn down the 500 bucks and go into the market place to shop. Accepting the 500 bucks brought me down to @350 per month for health and dental premiums. Turning it down and buying the same plans with the government tax subsidy brought my premiums down to about $125 per month. Some of the VIA benefits people know this, others dont or dont want reveal this to you. Be very careful in dealing with VIA..... They are worse than dealing with the NESC.

Thank you all for the comments, OP.

To @1hfa+1g7u1tB0 No, you don't have to get your insurance through Via Benefits in order to get your reimbursement money. All you need to do is activate an account with ViaBenefits and then upload proof that you are paying for your insurance with a receipt that has your name on it. Then Via Benefits will reimburse you , up to $1800 a year for Medicare age people. You can also get reimbursed for medical or dental bills that you have paid out of your pocket. You just need to send Via Benefits the receipt.

I am new to this HRA so could use some advice, is the HRA only paid if you take benefits thru via benefits or do they set up the HRA for you to use with Medicare gap insurances that you select outside of Ford ?

Experience is fair to good. I am getting reimbursements on time. Not sure what @ecc means that Ford paying VIA directly can be set up, because that is the only way it is supposed to work. Then VIA reimburses you from what Ford has paid them. I did find out having my premiums automatically paid by VIA option was going to be an issue - as VIA said none of the transfers are electronic. They send paper checks to the insurance companies . What? And it could take 2-4 weeks for the insurers to get the checks and properly credit to my account, if no errors. In the mean time the insurers are sending me over due notices. So I cancelled that and just pay the insurer, then VIA refunds it to an account electronically. If you want to make a little money I pay all premiums with a 2% unlimited cash back card, just for fun.

I’ve been having no trouble getting reimbursed for my premiums. Sorry you’re having such trouble! I thought I set up automatic payments but it’s not there. I keep having to look to see if it was taken out before I end up making a payment. Don’t want to pay twice. That would be my only complaint!

I had a lot of issues with ViaBenefits at the beginning of the year. It took about a month for them to finally accept my reimbursement request for my insurance. They kept denying all the receipts that I uploaded to their website. I purchased my insurance through them! That alone should be enough, but it wasn't! Everything has been smooth since. They automatically reimbursement me each month into my checking account.

The entire thing with Via Benefits has been a nightmare. I thought the NESC was bad. The NESC plus Via is a complete mess. I was told by the Via consultant that my account can be set up so that Ford pays Via directly rather than Ford reimbursing me after I pay my own premiums. I'm hoping that works better than everything else that's gone on in this process.