Top retiree labor officials met with U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer Aug. 27 to push for improvements in proposed federal legislation to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

The labor group underscored its concern that the legislation would open the door to privatizing Medicare. The House version of the Medicare legislation would require Medicare to compete with HMOs and managed care programs. The Senate bill that Mr. Schumer voted for does not contain that provision. As PEP went to press, a Republican-dominated House-Senate conference was attempting to put together a final version.

At the meeting in the senator’s Manhattan office, the group also urged him to support provisions that would prevent employers from terminating their retiree coverage. Critics say the law would let employers cancel their own benefits and dump the retirees into the poorer Medicare prescription drug program. Stuart Leibowitz, president of the Retirees Association of DC 37, told Mr. Schumer of his concern that the final legislation might let New York City stop paying for the current DC 37 retiree drug benefit to shift the financial burden to the federal benefit, which would be worse.

Besides Mr. Leibowitz, the labor contingent included Nancy Yost, chair of the DC 37 Retirees’ Political Action Committee, and representatives of AFSCME and the AFL-CIO New York State Alliance for Retired Americans. Mr. Leibowitz heads the ARA’s New York City chapter.

Responding to the labor group’s concern about privatization, Mr. Schumer said he wouldn’t support final legislation that leads to privatization and “doesn’t create a level playing field” between Medicare and private plans.

Mr. Schumer pledged to work to ensure that the final Medicare bill prevents employers from dumping covered retirees into the federal plan. “There is a real danger” that the Medicare drug benefit could cost many retirees their current coverage, he acknowledged.

The AFL-CIO estimates that up to 4.4 million retirees would lose their employer-provided coverage under the proposed legislation. If you want to tell Congress that you oppose privatization of Medicare through the prescription drug bill, go to the AFSCME Web site, www.afscme.org and scroll to the Medicaid Action Alert.