The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“H.R. 1322, A BILL TO PROTECT RETIREE HEALTH BENEFITS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H2104-H2105 on March 19, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
H.R. 1322, A BILL TO PROTECT RETIREE HEALTH BENEFITS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Tierney) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. TIERNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in the face of mounting evidence of a national crisis in retiree health care, and I want to announce the reintroduction yesterday of the Emergency Retiree Health Benefits Protection Act, known as H.R. 1322.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1322 will stem the tide of post-retirement cutbacks or elimination of health care benefits that have victimized millions of American retirees.
Now, Mr. Speaker, one would think that businesses and business values and basic fairness and, in fact, the law would ensure that retirees could rely on health benefits promised to them by employers. But the case is that increasingly, large profitable employers, even those who enticed employees into early retirement, have now changed and are reneging on their commitment.
These corporate cutbacks in retiree health care have reached intolerable proportions. For too long, working people have been denied health care benefits that were promised upon retirement to the lack of strong laws in this area. The retirees lived up to their end of the bargain, Mr. Speaker, and now the companies must live up to their end.
To renege on these promises jeopardizes the life savings of people who are forced to absorb the precipitous decline in their standard of living and dip into their savings in order to make up for a cut or a cancellation in health benefits. Even worse, retirees with preexisting medical conditions may not be able to obtain or afford any new health coverage at all. As a result, their health declines rapidly and, in some cases, needlessly.
A recent study by the Employment Benefit Research Institute found that a 65-year-old retiree without employment-based insurance may require up to nearly $1.5 million to fund lifetime medical expenses. That is assuming death at the age of 100 and medical inflation of 14 percent annually.
All of this is happening against a precipitous drop in personal savings. According to the AARP, which published ``How Americans Save,'' the United States savings rate has been steadily declining over the last 25 years. The Economic Policy Institute reports that in September and October of 1998, personal savings rates for Americans consisting of contributions to individual savings accounts, as well as employer and personal contributions to 401(k)s and IRAs and similar pension plans, dipped below zero for the first time since the Great Depression. The United States Department of Commerce reports that at the beginning of the 1990s, households saved on average about 8 percent of their disposable income. By 2001, the proportion of income set aside for savings had fallen below 2 percent.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1322, the Emergency Retiree Health Benefits Protection Act, would reverse these recent trends and bring common sense and fairness back to retiree health. With certain limited exceptions, the bill would prohibit employers from making post-
retirement cancellations or reductions of health benefits that retirees were entitled to when they retired.
In addition, the bill would obligate employers to restore benefits taken away after retirement, unless the employer can demonstrate substantial business hardship if compelled to restore the benefits.
Boosting a profitable bottom line would not qualify as a substantial hardship. While many employers are crying hardship today, Mr. Speaker, the hard truth is that many were aggressively cutting employee benefits in the midst of the economic boom of the 1990s when profits were high.
Basic fairness dictates that we ensure that the promises that have been made to those whose life's efforts have contributed to the great economic prosperity of our Nation are kept. We can ill afford the collapse of private sector retiree health initiatives because retirees no longer have faith in their employers' promises.
Last Congress, this bill garnered national support from retirees across the country. My office received hundreds of testimonials from people affected by these cutbacks, and tonight I want to share three.
From my own district in Massachusetts: Leo Murphy of Ipswich, who is the regional Vice President of the National Association of Retired Sears Employees, which represents 154,000 retirees nationally, has this to say: ``H.R. 1322 will ensure that companies don't sell out their retirees whose hard work grew the companies in the first place. We all made plans anticipating our retirement years, and those plans have all been torn apart. Enactment of H.R. 1322 will restore credibility to private sector health care plans and assure that retirees and their families continue to have the health coverage they were promised and worked for all their lives.''
From a retiree in Morristown, New Jersey: ``What a hardship it has been to see the health coverage I retired with, and fully expected to continue as is, be constantly whittled away. It just isn't fair. Not only is it eating into my pension every year, but my pension has not received a cost of living increase for the past 10 years. Please help us; we are counting on you. And thank you again for caring about us.''
And from Wellington, Florida:
``I am writing you concerning retiree benefits. I retired in 1991. Since that time, the company has reneged on promised retiree life insurance. The company has also made the retiree medical plan almost unaffordable by raising premiums far beyond the normal type increase. They have cut averages and cut coverages, they have raised deductibles, and made it pretty obvious that retirees are a liability, and please go away is the preferred method of handling retirees. Legislation is needed to protect retirees from vigilante actions of companies and protect retirees from unscrupulous company executives. Since many companies can no longer act in a trustworthy manner towards retirees, it will take Federal legislation to protect retirees when those retirees are the most vulnerable and least able to provide replacement benefits.''
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for their courtesy, because I have received hundreds of testimonials from these people. Congress should act, and I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting H.R. 1322.
____________________
