President’s Forum

November 28 Is an Important Date, Not Only for This Thanksgiving As we know, this year Thanksgiving Day is on November 28. Since there has been a great deal in the news about Artificial Intelligence (AI), I decided to give it a try. I asked AI: What has happened in history on November 28th? Over a dozen responses pop up.…

An analysis in the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Internal Medicine on June 10 concluded: “We think the time has come to declare MA [Medicare Advantage] a failed experiment and abolish it. That would allow redeploying the $88 billion taxpayers will overpay MA this year to upgrade benefits for all Medicare beneficiaries.” READ THE ANALYSIS The conclusion was…

NRLN President’s ForumBy Bill Kadereit The week of March 18-22 was a very good week for the NRLN – a winner. Sometimes our wins are small and they don’t always affect “me” but in our NRLN world, we appreciate every one of them. While this year Social Security and Medicare are at risk and while we have a battle to…

Medicare provides an enrollment period, October 15 – December 7, 2023, that allows beneficiaries to request changes in their original Medicare, Medicare Advantage (MA) and/or prescription drug plans. Most people sign up for both Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) Part B (medical insurance) or a MA plan during a period starting three months before turning age 65 and ending three…

Michael Calabrese, NRLN Senior Policy Advisor, who researched and wrote the NRLN/AREF white paper on Pension Plan ‘De-Risking’: Strengthening Fiduciary Duties to Protect Retirees testified on July 18 before the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Advisory Council. The 15-member council hears testimony, discusses retirement issues and presents recommendations to the Secretary of Labor regarding ERISA. I testified before the…

The 175-member Republican Study Committee a report for Fiscal Year 2024 Budget on June 14. It is filled with “political speak.” What it means that is important to retirees are: — An effort to terminate Medicare as we know it. The proposal recommends a “premium support” plan that would subsidize seniors for private insurance options that would compete with traditional…

To make a decision between the original Medicare path or the Medicare Advantage (MA) path, it is important to make a choice between MA with out-of-pocket protection and one of the Medicare Supplemental Plans (Medigap) that pay the 20% not covered by original Medicare. KNOWING MEDIGAP PRICES BY PLAN IS CRITICAL! The NRLN had urged the Centers for Medicare and…

The National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN) has co-signed a letter with more than a dozen other advocacy organizations to the Internal Revenue Service/Treasury Department’s opposing its proposed rule to eliminate the physical presence requirement for the witnessing of spousal consents to surrender the spouse’s rights to retirement benefits. The federal government’s proposal would sacrifice critical legal protections for spouses’ (most…

Mercer, a professional services firm, reported on its global website homepage on February 21, 2023, that the Secure 2.0 Act passed 90 new rules that apply to savings and pensions and that just 8 of them focused solely on single payer DB plan issues. Three of the 8 were NRLN proposals: (1) single payer plans Annual Funding Notice modifications; (2)…

Bloomberg News reported on January 24 that health insurers are again circulating letters among members of Congress to marshal support for Medicare Advantage (MA), a program where private companies covered seniors’ healthcare with the help of $53 billion in taxpayer rebates in 2022. The Medicare Pricing Policy Committee (MedPAC) reported $57 billion. You may recall that in 2017, I referred…