Health care stool also losing its legs, panel hears. (Retiree Health Benefits).

Publication: Medicine & Health

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Thomson Financial Inc.

Retiree financial security is famously said to have three legs--Social Security, a private pension, and personal savings--all three of which have perhaps even more famously grown shaky. Meanwhile, retiree health security rests on four legs--Medicare, Medicaid (for long-term care and, to some extent, prescription drugs for the lowest-income seniors), employer-sponsored retiree health coverage, and personal spending--of which only one, Medicare, has gotten much recent attention from Congress.

However, in 2002 largely Democrat-initiated legislative attempts emerged in both houses to authorize federal funding for so-called legacy retiree health care costs in some industries that have struggled in the face of foreign competition,...

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