Annual funding notice and supplement for the Red Cross Retirement System plan 

To avoid surprises, review your Medicare coverage (part D) every year

ARCAN Members Frank Carroll, Mark Hague and Sumner Hutcheson III had double hits in Florida

Move a little more for a lot less pain - Physical activity is the key to a better quality of life

By Jack Campbell, former ARCRA Treasurer and CFO for the American Red Cross

Retirees recently received their Annual Funding Notice. Only retirees still enrolled in the Red Cross retirement plan will receive this notice. If they compare this notice with the prior year, they will see few differences. This is because Red Cross management took no significant actions to transfer vested retiree benefit liabilities and related assets to third parties. (de-risking strategy). Consequently, any changes in the value of assets and liabilities were primarily due to fluctuations in interest rates, asset values and benefit payments, i.e. normal pension activity. As a result, the funding target attainment percentage remained the same as the prior year at 80%.

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If you’re satisfied with your Medicare Part D or Medicare Advantage coverage, you don’t need to do anything, and it will continue in 2025. But be very careful, your benefit provider could have made changes that will increase your costs or make a medication that you need unavailable. 

By now, you should have received a “Notice of Change” from your 2024 provider indicating if premiums or costs for medications you use are changing. With medications, the pricing “tier” may change resulting in higher co-pays and occasionally a medication will be dropped from the formulary and not covered at all. There are many stories about retirees who got huge surprises the first time they tried to fill their maintenance prescription in a new year. 

Frank Carroll has lived in Indian Shores, Florida for 20 years. It’s 10 miles south of Clearwater Beach on a barrier reef island, Sand Key. He says, “We live on the Gulf Intercoastal Water Way across the street - 225 steps - from the Gulf and we’ve been affected by hurricanes Helene, Milton and Debbie.”  

Helene caused three to five feet of water in the garage level of their 3-level town house. “We lost lots for tools and other stuff and had no access to the island or power for a few days,” said Frank. “In Milton we just lost a downspout.”

Cleanup is still a work in progress  Frank explained there is a lot of garage debris (and a few old Red Cross first aid kits), drywall in the garage and carpet on stairs to the living area will be replaced.

For millions of people, chronic pain can make even simple tasks difficult. Not only can it reduce physical, mental, and emotional well-being, but over time, it can cause people to reduce or eliminate physical activity. While it sounds counterintuitive, one of the best ways to reclaim one’s quality of life is to move more. Physical activity reduces chronic pain by building muscular strength and flexibility, reducing fatigue and improving sleep, reducing pain sensitivity, and reducing inflammation. 

Central to managing chronic pain is the development of muscular strength and flexibility.