The NRLN urges you to make your voice heard in our nation’s capital. By typing your zip code into the box at right you can access the latest Action Alert, learn more about your elected officials, see how they voted on bills important to you as a retiree, see election data, register to vote and more in the Capwiz pages. Click here to sign up to receive emails from the NRLN on legislative issues important to retirees.
NRLN Grassroots Network Members Urged To Lobby Lawmakers In Washington, DC
The NRLN is urging its Grassroots Network members to come to Washington, DC in mid-September for face-to-face meetings with members of Congress to lobby for legislation important to retirees. For more information on this event, watch the video on the left by Marta Bascom, NRLN Executive Director. Click here to read more details. If you can attend, send an email to nrlnmessage@msn.com.
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NRLN Works To Protect Pensions And Benefits
BILL KADEREIT, president
The National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN) is a non-partisan, grassroots coalition of retiree associations, individual retirees and pre-retirees devoted to enacting federal legislation to protect pension plans and retirement healthcare benefits.
With support from its more than 2 million members and Washington, DC-based staff, the NRLN identifies and rallies support for Federal legislation will guarantee fair and equitable treatment of retirees from the private and public sectors.
Learn more about the NRLN and legislation important to retirees by clicking on the links in the site index above.
NRLN RECENT ACTIVITIES
NRLN Action Alert - Emphasis on Retirees' Health Care Needs
The NRLN originally envisioned a Public Plan Option that would include reforms such as adding catastrophic coverage to Medicare; allowing retirees between ages 50 to 64 who lose corporate coverage to buy in to Medicare at cost; and eliminating the Medicare Part D prescription drug doughnut hole.
However, the term Public Plan has shifted to a battle for public funds and for reshaping markets and has turned health care reform into a series of political and ideological debates.
The NRLN has concluded that the NRLN should shift its position from supporting a Public Plan Option, as redefined, to directing its efforts strictly to what is needed by retirees in health care reform legislation regardless of the delivery systems. Click here to read the NRLN's Action Alert and Health Care Agenda Talking Points. Click here to access the NRLN's sample letter to send to members of Congress.
News Release: Retiree Leader Urges Congressional Committee Leaders to Hold Hearings on Retirees' Vanishing Health Care Benefits
Bill Kadereit, president of a NRLN, announced in a national news release that he has asked leaders of two Congressional committees and three subcommittees to conduct hearings on the vanishing health care benefits of America's retirees.
Click here to read the news release.
NRLN President Urges Hearings on Retirees' Vanishing Health Care Benefits
NRLN President Bill Kadereit has sent letters to 10 leaders of U.S. Senate and House committees and subcommittees that have jurisdiction on health care legislation. The letters asked the Chairs and Ranking Members to "immediately schedule a committee hearing to examine the rapidly vanishing retiree health care benefits."
Click here to read the letter to Representative Henry Waxman.
LATEST NEWS
Administration trims health reform price tag
By Jeffrey Young; The Hill ~ Jul 01, 2009
The Obama administration proposed a regulation Wednesday that would shave as much as $87.5 billion from the cost of one expensive component of healthcare reform. The House is considering legislation that would make permanent reforms to the way Medicare pays physicians...
Read more...
Obama Steps Up Drive to Tackle Health-Care Costs (Update1)
By Kate Andersen & Edwin Chen; Bloomberg ~ Jul 01, 2009
President Barack Obama stepped up his drive to overhaul the health-care system, saying that the U.S. economy has been “weakened by the crushing cost” of care and the economy will “just sputter along” without reforms...
Read more...
Retired At 54. Pensionless At 74?
By Mary Williams Walsh; The New York Times ~ Jul 01, 2009
General Motors is using its huge pension fund in a way it never intended. It had planned — and put money aside — for a steady march of retirees over time. But instead, tens of thousands of blue-collar workers, most in their 40s and 50s, are all becoming eligible for retirement benefits now, as the company rapidly downsizes.Read more...
White House open to new tax on health benefits
By Philip Elliott, AP; The Arizona Daily Star ~ Jun 28, 2009
The Obama White House left open the possibility Sunday that the president would break a campaign promise and raise taxes on people earning less than $250,000 to support his health care overhaul agenda...
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Health care reform details begin to emerge
By Kent Hoover; The Business Journal of Milwaukee ~ Jun 29, 2009
Employers would have to pick up at least 72.5 percent of the cost of health insurance premiums for full-time employees under the health care reform bill being considered by the House...Read more...
Lawmakers Face Growing Pressure as U.S. Health Issues Unsettled
By Kristin Jensen & Laura Litvan; Bloomberg ~ Jun 29, 2009
Lawmakers working to overhaul the U.S. health-care system face a pressure-filled July after leaving town this week without resolving the biggest questions dividing Democrats and Republicans...Read more...
Unions’ Health Benefits May Avoid Tax Under Proposal (Update1)
By Ryan J. Donmoyer & Holly Rosenkrantz; Bloomberg ~ Jun 26, 2009
The U.S. Senate proposal to impose taxes for the first time on “gold-plated” health plans may bypass generous employee benefits negotiated by unions...Read more...
Deal on U.S. healthcare overhaul still uncertain By Donna Smith; Reuters ~ Jun 28, 2009
President Barack Obama's drive to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system may be back on track thanks to Senate efforts to cut the price tag to $1 trillion, but a bipartisan deal on the sweeping proposal still is far from certain...Read more...
Baucus ups pressure on health groups By Chris Frates; Politico ~ Jun 27, 2009
The Senate Finance Committee is pressuring hospitals and insurers to follow the lead of the pharmaceutical industry and pony up to help pay for health reform, industry insiders say...Read more...
New $1 Trillion Price Tag May Advance Senate Health-Care Plan
By Laura Litvan & Nicole Gaouette; Bloomberg ~ Jun 26, 2009
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said the cost of health-care options being weighed by his panel can be cut to his goal of $1 trillion, potentially removing a major stumbling block to the legislation’s passage...Read more...
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