NARFE'S LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM
FOR THE 110th
CONGRESS (2007-2008)
NARFE's
legislative program is crafted by its members at a national convention
held in the year immediately preceding the beginning of each new Congress.
Through a resolution procedure originating at the local chapter level, the
process culminates at the national convention with the adoption of
specific legislative policy goals. Once approved, the goals become NARFE's
legislative program for the next Congress. Below is NARFE's legislative
program for the 110th Congress (2007-2008) adopted by delegates at the
29th Biennial National Convention held September 10-14, 2006 in
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
This Legislative Program is ordered into
three categories to illustrate their priority as NARFE legislative goals.
The first priority is to preserve the earned retirement benefits of
annuitants and employees. Second, is legislation that would provide
enhanced benefits to a significant share of NARFE's current and future
membership. And third, are other key positions.
Legislative goals
followed by a star asterisk require the introduction of
legislation.
Positions printed in italics are new to the
legislative program for the 110th Congress.
PRESERVING EXISTING
BENEFITS
Economic Security: Federal Civil Service
Annuities
- NARFE shall continue efforts in strong support of
cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for all federally administered
retirement programs on a regular annual schedule, computed on the same
basis and paid at the same time, regardless of age and/or income level.
NARFE opposes across-the-board cuts not required in all federally
administered retirement programs.
- NARFE supports, and shall
continue to evaluate, a Consumer Price Index (CPI) based on the objective
analyses of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) professionals, and opposes
any politically arbitrary changes in the CPI. The BLS should establish a
research program to develop an accurate measure for retirees. NARFE shall
work towards and support changing the CPI-W to the CPI-U as the standard
for determining the cost-of-living adjustment.
- NARFE opposes any
action that erodes the solvency of the Civil Service Retirement and
Disability Fund (CSRDF) and supports providing full public disclosure of
the fiscal stability and financial obligations of the fund.
Health
Security: the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program
(FEHBP)
NARFE supports protecting the nation's most efficiently
administered and cost-effective employer-sponsored health insurance
program, the FEHBP, for federal employees and annuitants. Toward that
end:
- NARFE will continue to actively participate in ongoing
discussions with key Office of Personnel Management (OPM) officials and
staff regarding the premiums, benefits, terms, conditions and marketing of
FEHBP plans. NARFE opposes increases in the enrollee copayment for
purchase of prescription drugs in FEHBP by federal annuitants who
participate in Medicare;
- NARFE supports legislation that would
ensure that all FEHBP enrollees receive the same level of prescription
drug coverage, by plan; and
- NARFE supports retaining the
carryover provisions in current law for Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
to ensure that FSAs are not used in conjunction with high deductible
catastrophic health insurance to form an alternative version of a Health
Savings Account.
To protect the program, NARFE opposes:
-
authorizing Health Savings Accounts, Medicare Savings Accounts, Medical
Savings Accounts, “customer-driven”, “consumer-driven” or
“patient-directed” plans in the FEHBP;
- broadening participation
in FEHBP, unless separate risk pools are created;
- indexing flat
payment by the U.S. Government for FEHBP premiums;
- requiring
federal agencies to pre-fund the government/employer’s share of
post-retirement FEHBP premiums for their current employees;
-
establishing separately rated health plans for Medicare-participating
retirees and survivors; and
- proposals that would encourage or
force federal annuitants or workers into “cost-conscious” FEHBP plans,
such as managed care and “customer-driven” options.
Providing
Long-Term Care
- NARFE shall actively participate in the ongoing
development of the federal long-term care insurance program, including use
of the plan's economy of scale to make premiums and underwriting
requirements more reasonable than similar products sold in the private
market.
- NARFE supports the guarantee of long-term care benefits
for individuals presently eligible for Medicaid, adequate state and
federal contributions to Medicaid to finance current and future program
needs, standards of care and safety that all nursing homes must follow in
order to receive reimbursement for any patient in their care, and current
Medicaid law which protects spouses of nursing home residents from
becoming impoverished. NARFE opposes further limitations on asset rules
which prevent severely disabled persons from qualifying and receiving
Medicaid long-term care benefits.
Guaranteeing Medicare for Current
and Future Generations
NARFE supports:
- protecting
Medicare's guarantee of basic health security for older Americans at
affordable and predictable prices;
- preserving the current
Medicare fee-for-service program, including the ability to select the
physician of your choice; and
- ensuring that the Medicare drug
program does not require beneficiaries who receive such coverage through
other insurance to pay additional premiums.
NARFE opposes:
-
means-testing cost-sharing requirements;
- increasing the Medicare
eligibility age;
- requiring home health care copayments;
-
proposals that would give private Medicare plans an unfair competitive
advantage over the current Medicare fee-for-service program and undermine
the present program's ability to share health care costs over a wide
community of coverage, including the premium support demonstration
program; and
- schemes that limit the government portion or reduce
its proportional share of Medicare premiums through a formula that does
not accurately reflect the updated costs of providing health care to
eligible beneficiaries.
Guaranteeing Social Security for Current
and Future Retirees
- NARFE opposes investment of the Social
Security reserves in investments other than Treasury securities.
-
NARFE opposes replacing any portion of Social Security benefits with
private individual accounts.
- In addition, NARFE should be guided
by the following seven Social Security principles to provide:
1) a
benefit people can depend on;
2) financial security for the
disabled, survivors, and dependents (i.e. social insurance);
3)
universal and fair coverage;
4) deliberate redistribution of
benefits to lower income beneficiaries;
5) efficient administration
of the program (less than one percent overhead costs);
6) benefits
at no risk to the beneficiaries; and
7) full cost-of-living
adjustments (COLAs).
Preservation of Employer Sponsored Health
Insurance
- NARFE supports continued enforcement of provisions in
the Age Discrimination in Employment Act that ensure that, when provided,
the same level of employer-sponsored health coverage be given to all
retirees regardless of age.
ENHANCING EXISTING
BENEFITS
Making Health Care More Affordable
The Association
shall actively participate in efforts by the Administration and Congress
to contain FEHBP costs, including the development and implementation of
initiatives to rein in skyrocketing prescription drug expenses,
particularly the use of the federal supply schedule by FEHBP plans to
purchase prescription drugs on behalf of enrollees.
- The
Association will educate its members on the effect of adding to or
changing coverage and the costs and benefits of requiring such benefit
changes.
- NARFE supports legislation to amend section 125 of the
tax code to allow federal retirees and survivors, and all other retirees,
to pay:
1) their share of FEHBP and other employer-sponsored health
insurance premiums with pre-tax annuities; and
2) health care
costs not covered by traditional health insurance and child and adult
dependent care with pre-tax annuities deposited by annuitants in “Flexible
Spending Accounts” (FSAs).
NARFE opposes the Office of Personnel
Management’s decision to forgo the Medicare employer subsidy to which the
FEHBP is entitled since plans provide annuitants age 65 and older with
drug coverage that is greater in value than the Medicare Part D
prescription drug program.
Ensuring Fair Social Security Benefits
for Government Retirees
- NARFE supports the repeal or reform of
the Social Security Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall
Elimination Provision (WEP).
- NARFE supports legislation that
would require the Social Security Administration to annually report the
amount of WEP penalty to affected individuals.
ADDITIONAL
PRIORITIES
Perfecting Federal Retirement
- NARFE supports
legislation to provide retiring federal employees the option of electing
and paying the actuarial cost of additional survivor annuity amounts in
five (5) percent increments, up to 75 percent of an unreduced annuity.
- NARFE shall advocate and support legislation that permits
civilian federal employees to deposit bonuses and performance awards in
any form into the TSP on a tax-deferred basis. µ NARFE supports
legislation to conform the TSP regulations with IRS regulations on other
qualified retirement savings plans. µ NARFE supports legislation to
authorize the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to take legal
action to protect the interests of TSP account holders in accordance with
its fiduciary responsibilities.
- NARFE supports legislation on
behalf of the diminishing number of Filipino federal annuitants to provide
for increased and adequate compensation for services rendered to the
Government of the United States.
- NARFE supports legislation to
prevent the erosion of deferred federal annuitant retirement
benefits.
- NARFE supports legislation to correct the calculation
of annuities of federal employees and retirees who work part-time in the
final years of their careers, and whose annuities are reduced as a result
of the interpretation of federal deficit law [Section 15204 of the
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 (COBRA) (P.L.
99-272)].
- NARFE supports legislation to create equity for
Veterans Administration nurses for work performed before 1986.
Pay
Comparability for Federal Workers
- NARFE supports full
implementation of federal employee pay parity as reflected in the Federal
Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (P.L. 102-378).
Ensuring
Job Security for Federal Workers Affected by Privatization
- NARFE
opposes policies on contracting-out of federal jobs which put employees at
an unfair disadvantage in the competitive process.
- NARFE opposes
proposals which would privatize government functions that do not ensure
the continued federal service of current employees.
- NARFE
specifically opposes contracting-out the processing and maintenance of
Federal personnel records.
Enhancing Long Term Care
- NARFE
supports proposals to develop and coordinate a comprehensive long-term
care policy that would include public and private initiatives that address
financing, choices and quality service.
- The association supports
tax relief for the purchase of long-term care insurance, family caregiving
and other long-term care expenses.
NARFE supports proposals that
would help individuals who cannot afford long-term care insurance or have
an immediate or likely need for long-term care to receive such services
without impoverishing themselves.
- NARFE supports nursing home
reform, including efforts to ensure that long term care facilities are
adequately staffed with experienced professionals in the medical
disciplines of gerontology and nursing and that such individuals continue
to receive training and are adequately compensated.
Improving the
Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP)
- NARFE will
encourage the Office of Personnel Management to increase the number of
health care providers who are board certified in, or have training in,
geriatrics in FEHBP plans.
Improving Medicare
- Repeal of
means-testing of Medicare premiums;
- Reduce the penalty imposed on
those who do not enroll in Medicare Part B at the time they become
eligible;
- Enhance Medicare prescription drug coverage, including
authority for the federal government to negotiate drug prices for the
entire program; simplifying and stabilizing coverage; and provide equal
coverage throughout the United States and its territories;µ and,
-
Place a greater emphasis on gerontological studies and training in medical
education programs financed by Medicare.
Controlling Prescription
Drug Costs
NARFE supports legislation to:
- allow pharmacies
to buy prescription drugs from pharmaceutical manufacturers for Medicare
beneficiaries at the same average discount available in industrialized
countries;
- permit drugs made in the United States or other
industrialized countries, and exported to third party industrialized
countries, to be reimported, or imported, to the U.S.;
- prevent
pharmaceutical manufacturers from limiting the sale of drugs to other
countries for the purpose of discouraging reimportation; and,
-
speed the approval of cheaper generic drugs.
NARFE supports
compliance with current law that directs the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) to approve new drugs through evidence-based
evaluation.
Providing Comprehensive Patient Protections
-
NARFE supports legislation that would provide comprehensive patient
protections to consumers enrolled in health plans regulated by federal and
state law and would also allow such individuals to sue their plans for
wrongful denials of care.
Securing Universal Access to
Comprehensive Health Care
- NARFE supports access to comprehensive
health care for all Americans.
Preventing Medical Errors
-
NARFE supports legislation which would create a system to monitor, analyze
and prevent medical errors.
Establishing Tax Equity
-
NARFE supports legislation to provide equitable tax treatment of
government retirement benefits comparable with Social Security.
-
NARFE supports indexing the income threshold on taxable Social Security
benefits.
Supporting Community Services for Older
Americans
- NARFE supports the reauthorization of, and adequate
annual appropriations for, the Older Americans Act to ensure the
continuation and enhancement of community services for senior citizens of
all income levels.
Enhancing Emergency Response Plans for Older
Americans
- NARFE supports the development of a coordinated
federal, state and local emergency response plan for seniors in the
event of public health emergencies or natural disasters.
District of
Columbia Delegate Voting Rights
- NARFE supports legislation and
other changes necessary to extend to the Delegate from the District of
Columbia the same right to vote on the floor of the U.S. House of
Representatives as is afforded to all other Members of Congress.
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