Can any recent retirees or departures comment on how it really works with the company insurance contribution…and any advice? Would like to consider EOI if offered. I’m over 50 and with years of service have about 80% of company contribution.
20 replies (most recent on top)
@dh: If you think Chevron is going to pay %80 of your medical costs in retirement, you are in for a very rude awakening! The number is more like %10-20 after premiums for Medicare supplemental and dr-g coverage, deductibles, and copays. Even less after you get hit with a large Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) surcharge, which is common for Chevron retirees.
Re: how can people not know their benefits, I think HR does a terrible job onboarding people. I have over 15 years, and a fellow employee with about 10 years experience, was not aware she had a pension benefit.
Re: healthccare coverage, old plan 80 points / new plan 90 points = maximum 80% cost contribution by CVX. If you age plus years of service are less than 80 or 90 points, then you take your (age + years of service) / (80 or 90) and that % is what chevron covers. You have to be 50 years old with 10 years of service to be eligible. So if eligible Chevron will put 67% 60 / 90 (min benefit) or up to 80% of the cost (max benefit).
Retired with 79 points. This “translates” to about $78/month toward healthcare ONLY if plan purchased thru Via Benefits. The 90 points “free” medical doesn’t mean you’ll get the same medical plans as a retiree! You may pay $1,000 monthly now for a family but that all goes away at 65. You have to go onto Medicare. So don’t calculate future insurance based on current insurance costs.
There are a TON of Medicare plans, based on state/region. Some have zero monthly costs but restrict who you can go to. Others have a charge but more self directed options. I went with a $monthly Plan G, PPO plan, which I can port to any of the lower 48, and it provides coverage while traveling internationally (not all do).
More important and less known are: the IRMMA charge from Medicare. I earned over a threshold limit so am billed an extra monthly charge for Medicare. Second, a buddy kept working (elsewhere) and didn’t sign up for Medicare Part D, prescriptions. He got dinged for it. When he retired, he pays a monthly penalty for not signing up at the right time, even if still working you must sign up at the correct time.
Become informed because the penalties are real and the extra monthly charge for being a higher wage earner are real.
"$1200/month for health insurance is nuts. How do people not support Medicare for all."
Well, we are already have a crushing $35 trillion in debt in large part because of government mismanagement of entitlement programs. Do we really want the government taking on the mother of all entitlement programs?
If you Roth convert your investments to eliminate cap gains taxes and avoid dividends in your taxable account you can easily keep your taxable income low enough to get Obamacare for a few dollars per month. Millions do this and it works great.
$1200/month for health insurance is nuts. How do people not support Medicare for all. 💀
Age+ years of service
How do you calculate the 90 points? Is this somewhere on our benefits site?
I retired in Jun 2024, 55 yo with full 90 points. I signed up for the Chevron pre-65 retiree insurance - (PPO). The cost is about $1020/mo for retiree and family. The premiums went up in 2025, $1200/mo. Hope this helps.
Also, the retiree medical contribution from CVX is available now, but will it continue to be, especially in their cost-cutting mode?
Consider that when my dad retired in 1992, Chevron paid his healthcare premiums in full. Then the cost went to something like $125/month. This was for Kaiser coverage in the Bay Area.
My point is that things change, and in my experience, not for the better in regards to healthcare retiree coverage.
Good luck!!
While the company contribution is helpful, once you are over 65, and if you have a decent pension (or income from your lump sum), you will pay a pretty penny for good medical insurance. Sad, true, but necessary.
Member of "Class of 2020" here. Kept Chevron coverage prior to 65, good insurance but it is more expensive than when you were an employee. At 65 and full points Chevron kicks in about $100/mo each for you and your Medicare-eligible spouse as long as you get the insurance through ViaBenefits. Good news is VB's choices are the same as outside and their rates are competitive. If you go the route Medicare + supplement + vision + dental (basically duplicating what I had at Chevron), Chevron's supplement covers 20-25% of your costs. Not great, but as others have said, it's free money!
There is a shockingly high percentage of people in the company that think if you hit 90 points you have full medical paid for life. Like literally you don’t pay one dollar.
$200/mo for life is not life-changing (only at best a quarter of health ins. costs), but over 20-30 years, it is $50,000-$75,000. I am happy to have it!
The whole POINT thing is nonsense. If you have 90 points you get a couple more dollars per month on insurance after age 65 than if you had, say, 75 points.
I retired a few years ago and have about an 80% match. Joining Chevron pre-65 retiree insurance cost about 1500/mo for my spouse and I (compared with a similar ACA gold plan plus dental insurance priced at about 2400/mo). Now that I qualify for Medicare, my post-65 benefit is about $150/mo for my spouse and I (against the part Medicare sub and dr-g cost of $550/mo), so my out-of-pocket is about 400/mo plus a bit higher deductible than when I was on the Chevron pre-65 plan.
If you stay in a Chevron plan, Chevron will cover their percentage and you make up the rest, including what you currently pay. If you qualify for 80% Chevron coverage, you pay the other 20% on top of whatever is you already pay.
Based on your info, you’ll get 80% of the monthly amount the company CONTRIBUTES to healthcare costs.
To get the benefit, you’ll need to stay in one of the company-offered plans and as stated in other replies, it’s way more than EE pricing. For me and 1 other person I pay about $1200/month (combined medical & dental).
Once you retire, if you stay within the CVX plan, you are insured with the rest of the CVX retirees and hence your insurance cost goes up dramatically (more expensive insurance pool). The CVX contribution is not that much so whether you get 80% or 100% contribution is not that big of a deal and thus should not be a big factor in your decision.
Setting aside a bridge period like COBRA, once you retire you are outside of the Company insurance pool. To receive the CVX contribution in retirement, you are required to go through Via Benefits and shop one of the offered plans for a Medicare supplement, Medicare dr-g, and dental plan. It’s not much from CVX, around $200 a month, but it’s free money so take it.