Police & Fire Retiree Health Insurance

Training for: Legal Notes, Legal Notes - Featured

Here is a reminder to municipal employers that the state’s Retired County & Municipal Law Enforcement Officers and Municipal Firefighters Health Insurance Program (5 M.R.S. § 286-M) imposes important notice requirements on employers of covered employees.

The program, established in 2005, provides a subsidy (55%) toward the cost of health insurance premiums for retired municipal and county law enforcement and fire employees. Eligible employees must be county or municipal law enforcement officers or employees of a municipal fire department. Full-time emergency medical services line personnel are eligible for the program, but reserve police officers and members of volunteer fire associations are not. Because the eligibility criteria are complex, careful review of the statute is recommended.

To participate in the program, eligible employees must enroll and make contributions during their active employment, participate in the municipality’s health insurance plan or another qualifying fully insured plan, and meet several other criteria listed in the law. Eligible persons may enroll themselves, their spouses, and their dependents.

Employers must notify eligible employees, in writing, of their right to participate in the program no later than 60 days after the employee’s effective date of hire. The employee must choose, in writing, whether to enroll, and a copy of the form through which the employee enrolls or declines to enroll must be retained by the employer. Election forms and guidance materials are available from the state Division of Employee Health & Wellness at: www.maine.gov/bhr/oeh/retirees/fire-law-retirees .

Employees hired after October 1, 2019, may also enroll within five years of their date of hire with retroactive contributions. The law also generally provides for enrollment for all eligible employees after certain involuntary losses of other health coverage.

Note that although members of volunteer or on-call fire associations and reserve law enforcement officers are not currently covered by this program, they may be eligible to participate in the state’s Dirigo Health program (24-A M.R.S. ch. 87).

Questions about eligibility should be directed to the Division of Employee Health & Wellness, in the Maine Department of Administrative & Financial Services (207) 624-7749 or www.maine.gov/bhr/oeh/retirees/. (By S.F.P.)