I can’t tell you the countless number of times I’ve been in social situations and encountered friends and colleagues who are facing retirement with no affordable access to health benefits, because they’re not from the education community.
You can imagine the eye rolls I get from my dear wife each time I add to the conversation “You know, if you worked in education, you could be a member of RTOERO and receive the best non-profit health and travel insurance coverage available in Canada.”
Eye roll or not, as champions for our organization, our role is to help those who served in the education sectors throughout their careers to have affordable health and travel insurance in their retirement years. After all, our mission is to be the trusted voice on healthy, active living in the retirement journey.
Provincial health plans in Canada are an important safety net, but they don’t meet all the needs of older adults. Most retirees need significantly more coverage, particularly for prescription drugs, vision care and paramedical services.
In 2002, RTOERO members listened to the legitimate needs of non-teaching staff in education by welcoming them as members and granting them access to our health and travel plans and peace of mind for their retirement.
In 2018, we listened to our members across Canada and incorporated as a national non-profit association. In 2019, that listening resulted in the creation of our three newest districts. The outcome is a growing national group of deeply engaged new members and a strengthening of our membership and insurance plans.
In our 2023 membership survey, thousands of you said it’s important for RTOERO to ensure that “public sector and non-profit professions (e.g., nurses, personal support workers) have access to non-profit group health insurance in retirement.” Like me, many of you believe we need to listen to the retirement fears of nurses, paramedical practitioners, PSWs and other essential public servants and professionals who care for older adults in our retirement.
Because RTOERO is always listening, maybe it’s time to discuss extending access to our health plans to other like-minded but unserved retiring professionals.
Best wishes,
Jim
