Retiree

Meet the Officers and Executive Board members of the Chapter.

Dear Retiree:

Thank you for your support and all your good wishes. I look forward to continuing the work of my predecessors, Jeannette DiLorenzo and Tom Pappas in leading this great chapter and I look forward to working with you in the never ending fight to protect and improve retiree benefits. Fortunately our benefits are among the best in the country, but the times are such that we cannot take anything for granted.

Health care reform heads the list of issues that will require our full attention and that we must continue to monitor in the year ahead.

Health Care Reform

The labor movement has set the following goals to attain health care reform.

• Establish a public plan option to compete against private health insurance plans. The public plan is a compromise between single payer and the costly status quo.

• Provide universal coverage with access for all Americans. This makes health care a right not a privilege.

• Create an opportunity for early retirees (ages 55-64) to buy into Medicare.

• End the large taxpayer subsidies that pay for Medicare Advantage. The former administration created advantage plans as a path to privatize Medicare Part B.

• Repeal the prohibition against Medicare negotiating volume drug discounts with pharmaceutical companies.

• Establish the reimportation of safe drugs.

• End the infamous “donut hole” or gap.

• Prohibit means-testing of Medicare Part D and repeal it for Medicare Part B.

• Prohibit taxing employer-provided health benefits.

Political Realities
Our goals are fairly represented in bills thatare coming out of the House of Representatives. Unfortunately that is not the case in the Senate, especially in the Finance Committee. The strategy of right wing Republicans, the health care industry, Big Pharma and about 8 or 9 Democratic Senators is to protect the status quo by delaying implementation of these bills. The longer the bills are stalled the greater the chance of the forces opposing them to tear them to shreds. That was the successful strategy used to destroy the Clinton Administration’s health care reform.

The stars may be aligned for reform of health care this year but it will take all of us working together to make sure it happens. The RTC/UFT has petitioned and lobbied Congress and the administration to address all of our issues. As the summer heats up, so will the battle for true, comprehensive reform. We will need your active participation. That means helping us to help you, your children and your grandchildren.

Please stay in touch. Check our web site regularly to see how you can help. We will be counting on our retirees all over the country to keep legislator’s feet to the fire for health care reform.

Chapter election results:

• Unity Slate: 14,545 votes
• Retiree Advocate: 4,461 votes

For the last 7 years, Tom Pappas has set an incredibly high standard of union activism for the Retired Teachers' Chapter. With your help, we can build on that standard.

In Solidarity,

Tom Murphy
RTC Chapter Chair
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HOT NEWS THAT NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION:

• Beneficiaries of the UFT class action settlement (Tier I Plan A and Tier II Plan C) will be receiving their checks in January or February 2010

• What health care reform means for Medicare eligible and future beneficiaries
• NYSUT's comparison of the Current System to Obama's Health Reform Plan

• Reimbursement for Medicare Part B which was means tested (income related)

• Medicare Part B Reimbursement for 2008 in August 2009

• Automatic COLA Increase — September 2009
• UFT to use new automated dues refund system for retirees working for the DOE
• Termination pay: Have you moved?
• (Click here for Q&A on the settlement)
• Initial pension revisions for class coverages continues to be processed
• Your 2009 Monthly Premiums for Medicare
• See your monthly check online
• UFT Chapter REJECTS new surcharges on Medicare Part B. See resolution passed on Oct. 17, 2006.
• Resolutions:
1. Opposition to Means Testing of Part D (Prescription Drug Plan)
2. Opposition to Increase in Medicare Part B (payment to Doctors) based on income (Means Testing)
3. Federal Tax Credit Long Term Care
4. Improvements in the COLA
5. Stop the Privatization of Medicare
6. Opposition to the Further Privatization of Medicare Part B “Premium Support” Demonstration Districts 2010
7. Resolution to Fix the System for Forming Unions (Employee Free Choice Act)
8. Opposition to the taxing of health benefits
9. No to the taxing of health benefits

• You have turned 65. You are Medicare eligible. Now What?? Click here.
• ENHANCED MEDICARE PART D SIMPLIFICATION???
• *Establish or Stop Your EFT Account at the TRS
• NYSUT's Handout on IDENTITY THEFT - Membership Meeting click here
• NYSUT and UFT introduce one stop interactive site providing straight answers on healthcare benefits for older adults and people with disabilities.
• 9 Essential Facts About Health Benefits(to be updated)