House panel mulls bill to bar retiree health cuts

Senior and employer groups squared off at a House committee hearing over a bill to bar employers from reducing or eliminating retiree health benefits for current retirees. We want "companies to live up to the promises they made," testified C. William Jones of ProtectSeniors.Org, which is pressing for the bill's enactment. Scott Macey of Aon, testifying on behalf of the ERISA Industry Committee, warned that it would cause "a dramatic decline" in the number of employers willing to provide retiree health benefits "if they are confined in the legal straitjacket that the bill would impose."  (Select News, 26 Sep 2008)

• Witness list and full text of written testimony (House Education and Labor Committee, 25 Sep 2008)

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