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WHAT IS THE NATIONAL RETIREE LEGISLATIVE NETWORK (NRLN)?
The National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN) represents more than 2 million retirees from groups including the Association of US West Retirees, Association of BellTel Retirees, Association of Prudential Retirees, Association of Raytheon Retirees, Lucent Retirees Organization, Monsanto Retirees and many more.
We seek to secure federal legislation that will guarantee the fair and equitable treatment of retirees in private and public sector pension and health care benefits. The NRLN is committed to securing fair treatment for all retirees, regardless of the type of benefit program involved.
WHAT ARE THE TOP 2007 ISSUES FOR RETIREES?
In 2006, the NRLN devoted much of its time and resources on issues surrounding pensions. We concentrated on the Pension Reform Act of 2006 and were successful in gaining provisions beneficial to retirees and preventing others that would have been harmful to the financial well being of retirees. This year, our activity, while not forgetting pensions, will be on health care issues, especially as they impact retirees.
Talking Points for the 2007 NRLN Legislative Agenda for
the 110th Congress appear below:
Health Care Legislation
- Support an amendment to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act that creates Maintenance of Cost Payments (MCPs) as an income supplement for health care to retirees effective at the time they retire or at a subsequent time where partial or full cancellation of coverage or subsidies occur.
(1) Support HR 4, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiations Act of
2007.
(2) Support importation of prescription drugs through S.242 (Senators Dorgan and Snowe). It’s called the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act of 2007.
(3) Increase Part D subsidies paid to employers who offer better coverage than Part D and who agree to maintain their plans that are superior to the Medicare Plan.
(4) Support HR 4685, the Medicare Prescription Drug Emergency Guarantee Act. This would prevent in-year interruption of Medicare Part D coverage.
Pension Legislation
The NRLN Legislative Agenda also includes a proposed ERISA amendment that would protect pension assets from use in corporate restructuring. The provision would stop the use of pension assets to pay for lump-sum layoffs or severance pay, and/or enhancements to selected plan participants to the exclusion of retirees whose plans are subject to a collective bargaining agreement.