What started out in 1999 as a basic research project for Union College anthropologist Linda Cool has turned into a national program to provide post-retirement health insurance to faculty at participating colleges.
Cool and her husband, Kenneth Cool, a former administrator at Vassar College, co-founded Emeriti Retirement Health Solutions, a nonprofit company that has partnered with Fidelity Investments and Aetna health insurance.
The program, the first of its kind in the nation, uses a defined contribution approach to pre-funding health care costs associated with retirement. Employer and employee-funded trusts that are built up – tax free – over the course of employment can be used – again, without being taxed – to pay for qualified medical expenses, including Medicare supplemental insurance premiums after age 65.
Thus far, some 20 colleges across the country have signed on for this program with at least 200 more showing interest, Cool said. “It's really astonishing that what started out as basic research by two people has turned into an enormous program to help thousands of people,” she said. “Had it not been for the Mellon Foundation that took a chance on this research and was willing to underwrite it, this probably wouldn't have gone any further than a scholarly article or book.”
Linda and Ken Cool first applied for a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 1999 to do research on the broader topic of faculty retirement and the issues facing those recently retired and soon-to-be retired. After receiving the grant, they developed a survey that was sent to more than 1,400 faculty members at 47 liberal arts colleges in the U.S.
With a return rate of 54 percent, Linda Cool said it was obvious that professors wanted to talk about retirement issues. “The topic that came up repeatedly was health care,” she said. “We heard amazing stories (in follow-up interviews) about how people are afraid to retire due to the cost of health care. There was even a woman who has cancer and continues to drag herself to work for fear of losing her insurance.”