Healthcare war hits America’s retirees hard
Brentwood Press, July 28th, 2007
American retirees, some 20 million of
them, are among the largest group of casualties in the war being waged
by their former corporate employers against workers’ and retirees’
earned healthcare benefits.
This
tug of war over the future of retiree health benefits is by no means a
mere skirmish. It affects up to 40 percent of Americans ages 60 and
over, and tens of billions of dollars in health costs each year.
Major
American corporations claim that they can no longer afford to stay
competitive and sell their products and services in a global economy
while paying benefits to retirees, even if these were contractual
commitments made to retirees in their working years.
Airlines
say they can’t pay jet fuel costs and retirees’ health benefits and
survive, and American auto manufacturers say that hundreds, if not
thousands of dollars of the cost of each domestically made vehicle goes
to paying worker and retiree health benefits.
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