[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 19, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H2104-H2105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          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

[[Page H2105]]

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.

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