John Tierney: “I rise today in the face of mounting evidence of a national crisis in retiree health care, and I want to announce the…”

“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.”