Friday Alert   December 15, 2006
Alliance for Retired Americans
888 16th Street, N.W. -  Washington DC, 20006 - (202) 974-8222 - www.retiredamericans.or

Senate Republican Leader Announces Plans to Oppose Negotiating Drug Prices
Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) said last week that he will move to force the Bush administration to negotiate Medicare drug prices when he takes over in January as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.  Such a move would go beyond earlier efforts by Democrats in the Senate to allow the government to negotiate lower drug prices.  Democrats say that if Medicare negotiated prices in bulk, it could save as much as $60 billion over 10 years, but Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the incoming Senate Republican leader, says he will oppose proposals allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices.  Eighty-five percent of the 1,867 adults polled in the Kaiser Family Foundation survey released December 8th said they favored such negotiations, including majorities of Republicans, Democrats and Independents.  "Senator McConnell is going against what the public clearly wants," said Edward Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance.  House Democrats will likely take the middle ground on the Medicare drug benefit, pushing for government-negotiated prices but stopping short of creating a federal Medicare plan to compete with private insurers, Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), in line to chair the House Ways and Means Committee's health subcommittee, said on Monday.  He said he felt that a government-run plan would save money but is too ambitious for immediate action.  Stark said he also wanted to reduce the number of private plans available to seniors.  There are currently 40 or more plans operating in many markets; Stark would like to reduce that number to 15 or 20.

Employers - Including Goodyear - Take Aim at Retiree Health Care Benefits
Over the course of this past year, employers have taken several steps to increase the amount retirees contribute for their health care.  Findings from a new survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Hewitt Associates, found that in 2006, 74% of large employers increased premiums for retirees under the age of 65, and 58% raised premiums for retirees over 65.  In addition, 34% of the firms raised cost-sharing requirements for those under 65, while 24% did so for retirees over 65.  When questioned about changes to retiree health care plans in 2007, 64% of the employers planned to increase retiree contributions to premiums, 26% planned to increase cost-sharing requirements, 20% planned to raise drug co-payments and 18% planned to raise out-of-pocket limits.  An estimated 3.8 million retirees between ages 55 and 64 and their dependents receive health coverage from an employer or union.  More than 12 million retirees now on Medicare receive supplemental benefits from their former employers.  "The burden of America's failing health care system is increasingly being placed on retirees' shoulders, and it's not right," said George J. Kourpias, President of the Alliance.  From 1988 to 2006, the share of large employers offering retiree health benefits declined from 66% to 35%.  As mentioned earlier in the Friday Alert sent out on December 12th, Saturday, December 16th will be a day of action in support of Goodyear employees who are striking to keep their retiree health and other benefits.  Remember that you can call 1-877-511-8792 or visit www.usw.org to find an event near you.

Electronic Voting Process Will Include More Paper Trails in '08
By the 2008 presidential election, voters around the country are likely to see major changes in how they cast their ballots and how those ballots are counted, according to the New York Times.  Upcoming changes include an end to the use of most electronic voting machines without a paper trail, federal voting officials and legislators say.  Recently, federal technology experts concluded for the first time that paperless touch-screen machines could not be secured from tampering.  Voters in Sarasota, Fla., where the results of a Congressional race recorded on touch-screen machines are being contested in court, passed a ballot initiative last month to replace their touch-screen machines with optical scanners, at an estimated cost of $3 million.  Over the last two years, 27 states have passed laws requiring a shift to machines with paper trails, and 8 others do not have such laws but use the machines statewide.  Five states - Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Delaware - still use only the paperless machines, and 10 states have counties that use them and have not made plans to change.

Mandatory Retirement Age Policies Get a Closer Look
Unlike corporate America, which largely abandoned mandatory retirement ages decades ago, many big law firm partnerships continue to push out older lawyers to make room for younger, cheaper talent with less experience.  One extremely vicious battle over the issue of older lawyers is being fought in federal court in Chicago, where the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit accusing the law firm of Sidley Austin of age discrimination.  The lawsuit pits lawyers who say they were expelled because of their age against Sidley, which contends that it did not have a mandatory retirement policy.  "If a firm expels workers because of their age, that is a violation of federal law," said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance.  "Forced retirement at a preset age cut-off is unfair, and when a company lies and says that the firing was performance-related, that business should have to pay damages." 

Field Activity
Alliance members turned out in force on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on December 8th to rally in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act.  The bill would allow employees at a workplace to unionize as soon as a majority signs cards expressing support to join a union.  Advocates of the bill like the protection it would offer employees who might otherwise be spied on, fired, or demoted by companies prior to a secret-ballot election on whether to form a union.

Did You Know...
One in four baby boomers will not have the necessary resources to retire at the age similar workers did in the past, and will likely have to work at least two extra years, according to a survey by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

THE NEXT FRIDAY ALERT WILL BE PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21.

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