CRTA 2007 Annual General Meeting

Report of the Insurance Committee

  Branch Benefit Representatives: Paul Demers and Mike Allen; member Ralph Levinson

The main activity of the Branch insurance representatives is responding to questions from current and prospective members about ARTA insurance.  These occur intermittently, about 3 or 4 calls each month for each of the two reps.  Mike has taken on a liaison role with Calgary Catholic retirees who have their Board’s coverage to age 65.

On 5 occasions Ralph Levinson made presentations to retirement planning seminars and special interest group meetings.  At these the ARTA Insurance coverage was outlined and questions were answered.

Ralph’s work on benefits has been with ARTA where he is Chairman of the Insurance Committee.  In this capacity he is one of 4 people who oversee our ARTA Insurance.  The Committee reviews current benefits, considers the introduction of new benefits like the trip Cancelation insurance that was introduced this year and balances these to keep premiums as low as practical. 

The greatest change in ARTA Insurance since it’s inception is the move to become self-insuring.  This has been under consideration for about 5 years and was approved by the ARTA Board of Directors this spring.  The date for the implementation of the self-insurance is September 2008. 

The Insurance Committee has worked to implement the changeover.  Basically, instead of paying an insurance company a fee for handling the risk that there will be insufficient funds to pay for our claims, ARTA has established a fund to handle this risk.  As a result ARTA gets to keep the fee that would have been paid to the insurance company.  In time, the money saved from this will be used to improve coverage and offset premium increases.    Members who have ARTA Insurance will not notice any change in coverage or claims processing when the changeover occurs. 

This year the ARTA Insurance Committee has been able to improve coverage and hold premiums at 2006 levels.  A major initiative will be the introduction of a program called Best Doctors (http://www.bestdoctors.com/canada/home.php).  This program will allow our members who ‘want a second opinion’ to have their medical files and lab results reviewed by leading specialist at no additional cost.  The ARTA Insurance Committee is working to implement this program on January 1, 2008.  Stand by for more information on this exciting program.