President’s Forum

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…

Today, January 3, 2023, marks the beginning of the new 118th Congress (2023 & 2024). The NRLN has posted its 2023 Legislative Agenda on the NRLN website at www.nrln.org. To read the updated document, click on the Action Network tab and select Legislative Agenda from the dropdown menu.  As I stated in a December 19 email, the NRLN Board identified…

US Capital and American Flag Congress has included in its omnibus bill three of the five issues the NRLN has been lobbying for which are very important to retirees. Congress is expected to pass the bill this week. To our leadership team suffered a major setback in September when Bob Martina, VP Grassroots died in an auto accident in September.…

Bill Kadereit, President, National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN), made the following announcements with NRLN Board approval to be effective January 1. 2023:  Hector Saenz, NRLN Region 10 Vice President Hector Saenz, NRLN Region 10 Vice President (Golden State Region – CA) has joined the NRLN Board of Directors as the at-large Vice President, Membership Development.  Hector R. Saenz served in…

The NRLN’s Series 2022, Episode #4 video/podcast, Preparation for Medicare Annual Enrollment Period is available in the center column on this NRLN website home page. My objective for this video/podcast is to emphasize the importance of being prepared for the enrollment period October 15 – December7 and to provide tips on how to do that so you can get the…

Discussion with Senator’s Medicare Staff Member The NRLN regularly has discussions with Congressional staff members to advise Representatives and Senators on Medicare and Medicare Advantage (MA) issues. Such was the case on September 2 when Alyson Parker, NRLN Executive Director, and I had a conference call with the Medicare policy expert for a chairman of a Senate Committee. We brought…

Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports 2022 The Trustees for Social Security and Medicare issued their annual reports on Thursday, June 2, 2022. Social Security has 66 million beneficiaries and Medicare covers nearly 64 million people in 2022. Key information in the reports for current and future retirees included: Social Security: The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, which…