Retiree Health Benefit Ruling is Victory for Members
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Thursday (April
22, 2004) approved an NEA-supported rule to clarify that offering early
retirees health insurance coordinated with Medicare does not violate
the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
NEA and a broad coalition of labor groups strongly supported the rule
to protect retiree health benefits, including early retirement health
benefits in negotiated contracts.
Early retirement plans that provide health benefits until the retiree
becomes eligible for Medicare were legally at risk.
Without this rule, school districts would be faced with the following
choices:
- Leave current early retirement plans in place and accept the legal
risk.
- Provide benefits in addition to Medicare to Medicare-eligible retirees.
- Reduce the benefits provided to pre-Medicare-eligible retirees so
that they are no better than Medicare, or eliminate such benefits
altogether.
Most school districts likely would have chosen the last option, and
many educators' post-retirement health care benefits would have been
in jeopardy.
Alfred Campos, an NEA lobbyist, was quoted in the New York Times as
praising the new rule, saying, ''It will encourage school districts
to continue providing health insurance to retired teachers under 65.''
Posted April 23, 2004