Next Few Years Are Critical for Retirees

A little over a month to the election and who will control the House, Senate and White House are up in the air. It is looking like, though, one party will not control all three chambers, which means they must work together and negotiate something that seems particularly hard lately.

For retirees, the next few years are critical in that there are many issues that need to be addressed – Social Security Reform, Medicare and Medicare Advantage, De-risking, and Prescription Drug prices to name a few. Below is just a brief snapshot of the issue and where the NRLN is on the issue.

De-risking – De-risking is when a plan sponsor transfers pension plans to a third party which monthly benefit in addition to other protections.

• Social Security – NRLN is strongly urging that the Social Security fund needs to be fully funded immediately. Our solution is to not cut benefits that have been promised to beneficiaries, but to make a modest increase in the payroll tax for employees and employers until the gap is closed. NRLN opposes raising the retirement age.
• 
  Medicare – Congress needs to ensure that all benefits given to Medicare Advantage retirees are
  also applied to traditional Medicare recipients. Right now, Medicare Advantage retirees receive
  vision, hearing, dental, transportation and more that are not offered to the 27 million retirees in
  traditional Medicare.

Additionally, steps need to be taken to protect the Guarantee Issue Rights of all retirees when their Medigap plan is discontinued. This is a new issue that the NRLN is working on as TVA, IBM and AT&T retirees have been impacted.

Susan Muffley Act – We will continue to advocate for the pension benefits of the Delphi Salaried Retirees to be restored.

Finally, we will continue to work to make Health Care Tax Credit permanent. The HCTC helps retirees ages 55 to 64 cover the cost of health insurance if their pensions have been taken over by the PBGC.

As always, we will continue to work to protect your interests with Congress and the Administration.