Jack:
You may recall
that I am the president of the National Retiree Legislative
Network (and a member of the overthehillcarpeople). We are in
the process of contesting the EEOC rule that places all retirees
over age 65 who are eligible for Medicare, at risk. As you may
know, companies may severely reduce or eliminate their
healthcare plans leaving their retirees reliant on Medicare
only. We expect companies to do begin taking the action starting
with the announcement of their 2009 healthcare plan revisions.
Here is what is at
risk:
All affected
retirees who currently have the Catastrophic coverage
(out-of-pocket maximum protection) will lose it. It is expensive
to replace.
All affected
retirees who currently have good prescription drug plan coverage
will lose it. They will be n Medicare D and must pay It is
expensive to replace.
Any retiree with
plan coverage greater then 80% of benefits will lose up to 20%
of their coverage unless they buy Medigap insurance at a cost of
about $150 / month (varies by carrier and state). Some companies
pay the 20% difference as a supplement.
The NRLN has
developed list of 17 questions for all candidates for President,
and the Senate and House that deals with this and other retiree
benefits. Results by state, Congressional district, candidate
and question will be posted for all to see. We will also
indicate those who failed to respond. You can see the list of
questions and the entire NRLN legislative agenda at
http://www.nrln.org/.
I am requesting
that you ask all other Overthehillcarpeople to read this
material and join us in lobbying for the reversal of the EEOC
rule and for all other retiree issues highlighted on our
agenda. The NRLN is the only national organization that
focuses 100% on lobbying for retirees only. There are 17
retiree associations that belong to the NRLN, including Ford,
Chrysler and GM Detroit Diesel retirees and our membership
includes people from management, technical / professional and
production worker retiree universes. The count of retirees
behind these organizations is well over 2,000,000 and more
that 20,000 (growing daily) are on our grassroots site.
We are asking
everyone with an email address to go to our website and sign
on as a grassroots supporter. Those who do will get lobby
request messages only. These will be requests to send prepared
but editable messages to their Senators and Congressmen asking
them to support retiree legislation. No solicitors, no outside
access, system has never been penetrated and all we need is
name, email address, zip code + 4 digits( Identifies
Congressional District), and home company or NRLN association.
We have a 13 member board, a national legislative committee
and lobby and legal support in Washington that focuses on
retiree issues only.
Please help us
grow support through our grassroots network by asking all
Overthehillcarpeople to checkout the website and sign up. If
the have questions they can email me as indicated below our
contact our VP communications, Ed Beltram
edbeltram@msn.com
The next few
years will be pivotal. National Health Care, Medicare and the
Social Security system are all subject to change be members of
Congress, some of whom who don't always see the needs of
retirees as important. We do.
