RE-Published
Action Alert concerning the HCTC:
Action Alert
on Behalf of the
Voluntary Benefit Trust for Airline Retirees
October 23, 2013
Dear Mark,
As many of you know, the HCTC program is scheduled to end at the
end of 2013. The Voluntary Benefit Trust for Airline Retirees which provides
insurance for many of our members has asked us to pass the following message
encouraging you to contact your Congress Person, urging them to renew the HCTC
program.
The HCTC program has been a tremendous benefit to many of our
retirees, and even if you have not used the program please take the time to
contact Congress on behalf of the many retirees who are relying on it to
provide reasonable heath care.
Please
read the message below and take action now!
Will
Buergey, Chairman, DP3, Inc.
--------------------
From: Cathy
Cone [mailto:cathy.cone@coneinsurance.com]
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 5:53 PM
Subject: WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 5:53 PM
Subject: WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Dear
HCTC Plan Participants, Families and Friends,
We need your help NOW! Please send this information out to
the mailing list and others that maybe eligible for the Health Coverage Tax
Credit program. See this attached spreadsheet of the Congress
People that are critical decision makers in Washington for the HCTC and could support
legislation to extend the program.
What needs to happen?
We
need your help in reaching out to members of Congress, asking them to act
to reauthorize
the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC) that is set to expire on December 31,
2013 unless Congress takes action to extend or permanently reauthorize this
very important program. As you know, the HCTC
currently allows for a 72.5% subsidy for Trade Affected workers along with
Retirees that have lost their pensions to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation(PBGC)
and their families.
The
current subsidy
is set to expire December 31, 2013 and Retirees
enrolled in the HCTC plans, either through a group plan like the Voluntary Benefit Trust for Airline
Retirees, the Steel Retiree VEBA Trust and the Auto Retiree VEBA Trust or
another group plan as well as those enrolled in State Plans will be required to
apply for subsidy assistance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Why Action is necessary?
As
you are probably aware, for most, it is difficult, if not impossible, to apply
for the subsidies that may be available beginning on January 01, 2014 through
the ACA due to the problems associated with the enrollment process through the
ACA website. Families across the country currently enrolled in the HCTC
program, with less
than 60 days to get enrolled and be confident that current HCTC plan
participants and their families will have access to healthcare in place
for 2014 must act NOW! As you know, HCTC eligible participants are
already verified as eligible to receive these
subsidies through the IRS and the PBGC data process, it simply makes good sense to
reauthorize this HCTC program for at least 2014 while the ACA continues to
eliminate the bugs and "glitches" in their computer systems that are
currently prohibiting Retirees from applying for subsidies they may be eligible
for under the ACA; subsidies that are necessary in order for the Retirees and
their families that have lost/had their pensions reduced through the PBGC to be
able to afford the cost of healthcare for 2014!.
Solution for 2014
It
is not acceptable that Retirees and their families should be left in limbo for
months as to whether they will have affordable
Healthcare insurance available to them and their families on
January 01, 2014 since due to the implementation of the ACA, their current
plans will be
terminated due to the loss of the HCTC subsidy on December 31, 2013.
Unfortunately, the insurance providers they are currently enrolled with,
while willing to offer HCTC programs for 2014 as long as a subsidy is
available, are not willing to offer insurance to plan participates without this
very important subsidy,causing Retirees and their families to be dropped from
their healthcare coverage for 2014 without the HCTC being reauthorized.
Action Required by you and your family and friends:
We
need each of you to do the following:
(1) Put
together a letter, in
your own words, describing your particular situation, and
how important it is to you and your family to have access to healthcare
(2) The
hardship the elimination of the HCTC will be on you and your family
(3)
What it has meant to your family to have the HCTC program and the fact that
while you have already been a victim of unfunded promises and you will soon
become a victim of broken promises as to the availability of affordable
healthcare for 2014!
(4) Reauthorization
is needed for at least 2014, so that you will have the confidence that your
family will have access to affordable healthcare insurance for 2014 until these
exchanges are up and running in all states across the country. Waiting to
get an exchange in some states up and running in March of April is not an
option for families that need insurance on January 01, 2014! Action is
necessary today to ensure healthcare needs are met for January 01. 2014!
(5) Tell
them that as members of Congress, they have the capability to reauthorize this
program and you are counting on them to work with other members of Congress to
assist you in getting this HCTC program reauthorized for 2014 as soon as
possible.
(6) Include
this fact in your letter
a. As
part of the recent Debt Limit agreement reached by Congress, one of the
requirements pertaining to the Affordable Care Act was that people eligible for
subsidies must have those subsidies verified as eligible to receive
subsidies. The HCTC program today already has a process in place that
verifies the eligibility of HCTC eligible participants to receive a subsidy,
through a stringent IRS/HCTC/PBGC process. Therefore, the HCTC program meets
that requirement and should be reauthorized for 2014 without delay!
Please
take the time to not only (1)write your letter, (2) fax the letter and (3)
follow it with a call to EACH office listed on this spreadsheet of the Senators and
Congressmen that are critical decision makers in Washington regarding this
program, regardless of whether they are in your own district or not.
This
will require you to take some time to do, but it is critical to the success of
the push to get this program reauthorized! You need to not only ask your
family members to help, but please ask your friends and neighbors to participate
as well. We are working with other groups to spread the word and we need
you to begin today doing your part to lobby for this reauthorization of the
HCTC in 2014!
Thanks
for your help in this important process! If we all do our part, we can
make the difference in getting the HCTC program reauthorized for 2014!
Best
Regards,
Cathy
Cone
Cone
Insurance Group
cathy.cone@coneinsurance.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Full post disclaimer in left column. PCN Home Page is located at: http://pcn.homestead.com/home01.html
No comments:
Post a Comment