“When we first floated the idea of a retiree dental plan, it was greeted with a great degree of skepticism,” recalls Association President Ralph White. “But the GIC sat down with us, conducted a feasibility study and eventually in ’02, began offering a dental plan for retirees enrolled in the state insurance program.”

Since its inception in ’02, the dental plan has experienced phenomenal growth in the number of subscribers from 3,570 to 11,542. This is a 223% increase in enrollment over the plan’s 5 years of operation.

During that same period, the number of single subscribers has increased from 2,822 to 8,114 - a 182% increase. In the number of family (couple) subscribers, the growth was even more remarkable, from 738 to 3,428, which is a 358% increase.

According to Shelley Molnar of MetLife, the mega insurance carrier that became the plan’s administrator this July, the dental plan experienced further substantial increases during the GIC’s recent (Spring ’07) open enrollment. For single subscribers, the number had increased by 15% to its current level of 8,114, while the family (couple) numbers rose by 26% to the 3,428 quoted earlier.

With the number of subscribers continuing to grow, there has been a steady reduction in the plan’s premiums. Since its inception, the premium for the single subscriber has gone down by 25% and for the family by 26%.

In it’s first year (‘02) the premium was $32.36 monthly for an individual and $77.16 for a couple (family). Now those premiums are $23.93 and $57.64 respectively.

“Looking over these numbers, one can only forecast continued success for this plan,” comments White. “That skepticism, we encountered over 5 years ago, has clearly been proven wrong.”