Governor Spitzer: Sign the Retiree Health Care Protection Bill, S6030!

 New York State government retirees are guaranteed some level of health care insurance, but the specific benefits, and limits, are not guaranteed.  PEF Retirees have been working for several years to get a health care protection bill passed and signed into law. This legislation will ensure that retiree health care is provided, by law, at a level commensurate with the coverage available to active employees. Currently such parity can be modified at any time.

 S6030 prohibits the diminution of health insurance benefits of retirees and their dependents or the reduction of the employer's contributions for such insurance unless a similar change has been negotiated for active employees.  The prohibition would be in place from May 1, 2007 until May 15th, 2008.

For the past several years, this bill has been passed by the Legislature but vetoed by the Governor Pataki. This year, there is a new governor and a new opportunity. We need to make every effort to get the Governor Spitzer to sign this critical legislation.

 Contact Governor Spitzer and ask him to sign S6030 into law!

CONTACT THE GOVERNOR

By internet: Go to www.ny.gov/governor; Click on "contact the Governor"; then click on “Click here to e-mail the Governor”

By telephone:  518-474-8390

 Sample Message:

I strongly urge you to sign S6030, which would prohibit a public employer from diminishing the health insurance benefits provided to retirees and their dependents or reducing the contributions which the public employer makes toward these benefits.  These protections would be in effect until May 15, 2008.

Public employee retirees have provided years of valuable service to the state or local governments, but live in fear that their retirement security may be upended by changes to their health insurance.  The cost of changes to retiree health benefits could be devastating when considering that their income is largely fixed.

Thousands of retirees are counting on you to protect their health benefits statutorily.  Please sign S6030 into law.