Don’t threaten retirees’ benefits

While Americans are suffering through some of the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, the average corporate CEO is doing just fine, raking in an average salary of $11.4 million — or 337 times the average worker, according to The Street.

Let’s not forget about tens of millions of retirees like me, who spent decades in long careers funding our corporate-sponsored retirement benefits. We accepted lower wages and salaries in order to secure valuable non-wage benefits like health care and pensions.

Now these are being threatened by a tax provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The only way to stop this is passage of the Earned Retiree Healthcare Benefits Protection Act of 2011 (H.R. 1322), a bipartisan bill that would protect America’s retirees from having their earned health care benefits, reduced or eliminated by their former employers.

To protect our earned benefits, it is important that retirees join ProtectSeniors.org, an organization leading the charge, to pass H.R. 1322.

Donald Mersch

Cary