Those eligible for Medicare may lose coverage under new rules. AARP calls the policy "a fiasco."By Mark Drajem
Bloomberg News Article Last Updated: 12/27/2007 11:57:59 PM MST
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled that employers can cut benefits for retirees who turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare without violating age-discrimination laws.
The commission, which enforces workplace-fairness laws, said in a regulation that took effect Wednesday that companies and unions can offer greater benefits to those who are too young to qualify for Medicare or state-sponsored health insurance. "By this action, the EEOC seeks to preserve and protect employer-provided retiree health benefits which are increasingly less available and less generous," commission chairwoman Naomi Earp said in a statement. A two-tiered system will help forestall across-the-board reductions, the EEOC said. The commission in Washington approved the regulation April 22, 2004. AARP, which represents millions of Americans over the age of 50, sued to block it. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Philadelphia rejected AARP's arguments in June. The policy amounts to age discrimination, AARP said. "This policy is a civil rights and economic fiasco," AARP said in an e-mailed statement Thursday. "It is a wrong-headed move to legalize discrimination, allowing employers to back off their health-care commitments based on nothing more than age" and "merely passes the buck to those who can little afford it." The government, unions, nonprofits and individuals need to help expand access to affordable health care, AARP said. Health benefits for retirees are falling. In 2000, one-third of large employers and less than 10 percent of small employers offered retirees health benefits, compared with about 70 percent of employers in the 1980s, a government study said. Note; When this rule was written in 2004, the EEOC consisted of 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats. The original vote to release this rule was along party lines with the 3 Republicans supporting it and the 2 Democrats opposed. Today, all 5 members are President Bush appointees. Big corporations have lobbied hard for this rule.John Kotson
|
Health Care Reform 
