Anxiety Over Early Retirees' Health Coverage

Exploring Public and Private Options

January 10, 2008, 10:00am – 11:30am

About This Event

One “canary in the coal mine” for the U.S. health care system is the fate of early retirees’ health benefits. Once a win-win for workers and employers, the skyrocketing cost of health insurance has reversed this trend. The pressure on employers and anxiety of retirees have risen. This has led to new types of arrangements between firms and unions to preserve funding and insurance for pre-Medicare retirees. But will it work? Should other firms and unions follow suit? And what role should policy play in protecting the health coverage of early retirees? 

Please join us for a discussion of these questions with a distinguished panel.  Jeanne Lambrew of the Center for American Progress will present an overview of the challenges and policy issues.  Larry Cohen of Communications Workers of America, Annette Guarisco of General Motors, Karen Ignagni of America’s Health Insurance Plans, and Barbara Kennelly of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, will shed light on the opportunities, challenges, and possible actions that public and private actors can take.

Please note that the length of this event has been extended by 30 minutes.

Featured Panelists:
Larry Cohen, President of the Communications Workers of America
Annette Guarisco, Executive Director, Federal Affairs and principal deputy to the Vice President, Global Public Policy and Government Relations at General Motors
Karen Ignagni, President and Chief Executive Officer of America’s Health Insurance Plans
Barbara B. Kennelly, President and CEO, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

Moderated by:
Jeanne Lambrew, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Location

Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Biographies

Larry Cohen is the president of Communications Workers of America. Throughout his career, Cohen has chaired major contract negotiations in both the public and private sectors, at employers including Verizon and AT&T, and Cingular Wireless, now AT&T Mobility. Cohen was one of the first to recognize changes in telecommunications through the convergence of video, voice, and data technologies, and the need to unify unionized workers in these sectors. He also has worked to expand CWA -- the union now represents workers in information technology and communications; print and broadcast media and publishing; health care, education, and public workers; manufacturing and the airline industry.

A native of Philadelphia, Cohen became active in the union as a state worker in New Jersey, where he led a successful organizing drive which eventually brought 36,000 state workers into the union. In 1980, he was appointed a staff representative. He was promoted in 1982 to New Jersey area director and again in 1985 to assistant to the CWA vice president for District 1. In 1986 he was called on to serve as assistant to the CWA president and director of organizing, a position he held until his election as executive vice president in August 1998.

Annette Guarisco is executive director, federal affairs and principal deputy to the vice president, Global Public Policy and Government Relations at General Motors (GM). She leads government relations efforts in a variety of areas, including health care, pensions, and corporate governance. Annette also provides advice and counsel regarding election and campaign finance laws and relationships with government officials. Annette joined GM in 2002 from Honeywell where she led government relations efforts on tax, health, and chemical industry issues as well as the company's political action committee. Annette has more than 20 years of legal and public policy experience in Washington. She was counsel to Senate Majority Leaders Dole and Lott, and was counsel at Dewey Ballantine. She began her career at the Internal Revenue Service in the Office of Chief Counsel.

Annette has a B.B.A in finance and a law degree from Hofstra University, as well as a master's of law in taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.

Karen Ignagni is the president and chief executive officer of America's Health Insurance Plans, the voice of the health insurance industry. The member companies of AHIP provide health care, long-term care, dental, and disability coverage to more than 200 million Americans. Since joining AHIP predecessor organization in 1993, Ignagni has won many accolades for her leadership. Washingtonian named her one of the Top Three "Top Guns" of all trade association heads. George magazine placed her 21st on a list of the 50 Most Powerful People in Politics. Last year, Modern Healthcare named her the seventh most powerful person in all of health care. Ignagni has authored more than 90 articles on a wide range of health care policy issues, including pieces published in The New York Times, USA Today, New York Daily News, The Washington Times, Institutional Investor, New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, Modern Healthcare and Physician's Weekly. A recognized industry spokesperson, Ignagni has appeared on the national network newscasts.

Ignagni's professional life has been dedicated to the cause of promoting access to high-quality, affordable health care. Prior to joining to AAHP, Ignagni directed the AFL-CIO's Department of Employee Benefits. In the 1980s, she was a professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, preceded by work at the Committee for National Health Insurance and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Ignagni holds an M.B.A. from Loyola University and an undergraduate degree from Providence College.

Barbara B. Kennelly is the National Committee President and CEO, and has spent 25 years in public service at local, state and federal levels, including 17 years as a member of the U.S. Congress.  A former ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Social Security, Mrs. Kennelly was the first woman to serve as Chief Majority Whip and she was Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus.  She was also the first woman to serve on the House Committee on Intelligence.  Throughout her career, Mrs. Kennelly has advocated for Social Security, Medicare and other health and retirement issues. After leaving Congress, she served as Counselor to the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.  Mrs. Kennelly served on the 2005 White House Conference on Aging.  In 2006, Mrs. Kennelly was appointed to the Social Security Advisory Board by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.  Mrs. Kennelly resides in Hartford, Connecticut and Washington DC.

Jeanne M. Lambrew, Ph.D, is Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and an associate professor of public affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in health care and policy and conducts research on the uninsured, Medicaid, Medicare, and long-term care. Previously, Dr. Lambrew was an associate professor at the Department of Health Policy at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. From 1997 to 2000, Dr. Lambrew worked on health policy at the White House as the program associate director for health at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and as the senior health analyst at the National Economic Council.

Dr. Lambrew received her master's degree and Ph.D. from the Department of Health Policy, School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and bachelor's degree from Amherst College.