{"id":98,"date":"2017-02-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calchurches.planetpov.com\/impact\/index.php\/2017\/02\/16\/two-federal-bills-that-begin-the-assault-on-older-americans-please-oppose-them\/"},"modified":"2017-02-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T00:00:00","slug":"two-federal-bills-that-begin-the-assault-on-older-americans-please-oppose-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/2017\/02\/16\/two-federal-bills-that-begin-the-assault-on-older-americans-please-oppose-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Two federal bills that begin the assault on older Americans.\u00a0 Please oppose them!"},"content":{"rendered":"
Dear Friends:<\/span>\u200b<\/p>\n

<\/span>Two actions, a joint House Resolution and a bill, start the assault on America\u2019s aging population.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>First, as a step in changing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), HR 708 <\/strong>would permit the reinstatement of \u201crisk rates\u201d. These are actuarial justifications for charging some people higher rates than others.\u00a0 HR 708 is an \u201cAge Tax\u201d that lets insurance companies charge us more as we get older (which ought to be a very good thing!) without any other consideration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>An \u201cAge Tax<\/strong>\u201d presumes that every older person is a burden on the system which, in this day and age of careful prevention and healthy ways of life, is not remotely accurate. Such a presumption opens the door to restoring the ban on coverage for pre-existing conditions.\u00a0 These aspects of health coverage denial and unaffordability were eliminated from ACA for very good reasons. They put health care financially out of the reach of older people and let insurance companies \u201ccherry pick\u201d only the healthy to cover.\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>We need you to contact both your Representative and your two Senators to stop the \u201cAge Tax<\/strong>\u201d now!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The second issue, HJR 66, attacks a program we worked to obtain in CA \u2013 California Secure Choice. This program, passed last year, enrolls employees of any business that has no retirement plan into Secure Choice.\u00a0 Unless employees opt out, they will have an automatic deduction of 3% of their earnings put into the state Public Employee Retirement System pool of investments so that upon retirement they will have a nest egg to supplement their Social Security.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>California Secure Care and similar programs offer congregations and faith organizations a way of helping their staff and clergy obtain pension coverage when they otherwise cannot afford to do so.\u00a0 This is a great boon to us as well as to the fast food workers, cleaners, hotel housekeepers, and every other low-wage employee or those working for impoverished organizations. Retirement security just became real!\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>No one is forced to participate if they choose not to do so; loans for emergencies may be withdrawn during the pre-retirement years and repaid on very easy terms, and participants will have the safety and security of the PERS fund to protect their pensions just as state workers do now.\u00a0 This is at no cost to either the employer or to taxpayers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>But Congress is dead set against this plan, now in effect in 6 states and in preparation within 19 more.\u00a0 It does erode private retirement plan dominance, a good thing for working people if not for those plans. Employers always have the option of setting up their own traditional plans, but for those who cannot or do not, employees are automatically covered.\u00a0 Protecting investors not working people is behind this joint resolution.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>Please contact your Senators and ask them to vote against HJR 66 <\/strong>and permit working people the option of participating in their state\u2019s retirement system.\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>Are your representatives and Senators already on your side?\u00a0 Let them hear anyway!\u00a0 They need numbers to hold up to opposition to make clear that the weight of public opinion is on our side!<\/span>
<\/span>\u00a0Please take advantage of the Congressional break this coming week, February 18-25 to contact your federal legislators in the district.\u00a0 To find their local contact information, please go to our site:\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.churchimpact.org\/take-action.html\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>We have a real chance to protect two programs we use, health and retirement, but we must act now to make sure these bills do not pass.\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>Raise your voice!\u00a0 Make a difference!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Thank you!<\/span>
<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends:\u200b Two actions, a joint House Resolution and a bill, start the assault on America\u2019s aging population. First, as a step in changing the … Read More ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}