Fight for your health care rights |
| By Carole Moore
• Bankrate.com |
|
No, you don't have to sit back and watch while
your health care benefits go up in smoke.
Under ERISA (Employment Retirement Income Security Act
of 1974), private employers must disclose
any discretion they reserve to terminate or
reduce benefits. Be sure to carefully review
any documents you've received from your employer
or health care provider concerning your medical
insurance benefits.
Don't like what you see or want to make sure your
benefits don't go south? Then get active.
Jim Norby, 79, is president of the National
Retiree Legislative Network. A former
employee of Northwestern Bell Telephone of
Omaha, Neb., Norby and his associates -- all volunteers
who've experienced loss of retirement benefits
-- are working to change health care for retirees.
Norby says few people facing
retirement realize what's really happening
on the health care front: Millions face the
loss of, or have already lost, health care
benefits. "What are they all going to
do? Go work at Wal-Mart greeting people to
pay for medical benefits?" he asks.
Even Wal-Mart couldn't afford
that many greeters. Norby says it's time to
organize and demand change. "This is
seen as a liberal cause, but it's not,"
Norby says. "It's a fundamental problem."
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| Here's what political activists say: |
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Individuals with common interests will have to come together and organize, or put their muscle behind an existing organization that advocates for health care changes. |
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Candidates for national office must be closely examined for their stance on health care issues. Older people tend to vote with more regularity. They need to understand the power they wield. |
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Americans must demand the right to legally purchase prescribed pharmaceuticals from outside the U.S. and demand that generic drugs be easier to access domestically by reducing the timeline for drug patents to no more than five years. |
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Advocacy organizations must support tort reform that will allow physicians and hospitals to lower their operating costs and pass the savings on to patients. |
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