NRLN Arizona Chapter Says – Wake Up AZ….

Now is the time for your Senators and Representatives to hear your voices! Let them know how you feel about their lack of action when it comes to protecting retirees’ benefits.

NRLN Report Cards on Arizona’s Members of Congress

The following “Report Card” shows whether Arizona members of Congress sponsored or cosponsored or voted for bills the NRLN supported in the current 115th Congress. Click here to access the Arizona Congressional delegation webpage on the NRLN website. Then click on the tab NRLN STATE REPORT CARD (EXCEL DOWNLOAD).

Message from Bill Kadereit, NRLN President

Do you know…Beginning in 2020, Social Security will pay more in benefits than it takes in from taxes and interest income? Social Security will deplete its $2.9 trillion reserve fund in 2035. While the program will not go bankrupt due to payroll taxes, projections are benefits would be cut between one-fourth to one-third.

Do you know…Medicare’s Hospital Insurance program (Medicare Part A) is pointed toward insolvency by 2026? At that time, Medicare Part A will only have enough funds to pay about 87% of costs. The Supplementary Medical Insurance (Medicare Part B and Part D) trust fund remains adequately financed throughout the projection period because of beneficiaries’ premiums and general taxpayer revenues.

Do you know…The NRLN and your Chapter are working to get Congress to adopt our proposals to save Social Security and Medicare for the next 75 years?

Do you know…Congress is allowing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize private insurance companies for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to serve as a “Trojan horse” to move toward privatization? The NRLN and your Chapter opposes the use of MA plans to privatize Medicare.

Do you know…An analysis has shown that privatizing Medicare would increase the cost to beneficiaries by 18%? This is not cost improvement. This is cost shifting to seniors and the NRLN opposes it.

Do you know…The NRLN supports legislation to allow Medicare to do competitive bidding>for lower prescription drug prices? We want to end pay-for-delay and other brand name drug makers’ tactics that obstruct generic drugs from coming to market, and allow importation of safe and less expensive drugs from Canada.

Do you know…Far too often pension plan sponsors find an error in the pension payment calculation and force retirees to pay back thousands of dollars and suffer a large cut in benefits? The NRLN proposes an amendment to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to indemnify individual plan participants from the requirement to refund overpayments by instructing actuaries to account for recoupment as a plan funding risk requiring very small adjustments to plan actuarial calculations.

Do you know…Many employers are selling pension plans to insurance company annuities? The steady decline in traditional defined-benefit pension plans through “de-risking” will continue with 76% of plan sponsors saying they plan to shed their pensions. When “de-risking” occurs with the purchase of an insurance annuity, pension plan participants lose the protection of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and the ERISA. The NRLN’s proposed legislation would protect retirees.

Topics of Interest

From: Martha Deahl, NRLN Vice President Desert Southwest Region, AZ/NM/NV Desertsouthwestregion@NRLN.org

Subject: Change in CenturyLink Concession Service

Changes in CenturyLink Concession Service policy was updated on May 3, 2018 which affects management retirees. The policy states:

“If you are enrolled in concessions prior to May 3, 2018, you may keep your current concessions. However, if you change your services, apply for the new concession program, or move to a new address any time after May 3, 2018, you may not be able to revert to your prior concession offer.”

Thanks, Martha