Court OKs cut in benefits for retirees turning 65

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday gave employers a green light to reduce health benefits for millions of retirees who turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare. The justices turned away a legal challenge from AARP, the nation's leading senior-citizens lobby, which had contended the lower benefits for older retirees violated the federal law against age discrimination.

The court's action upholds, in effect, a rule adopted last year by federal regulators that says the "coordination of retiree health benefits with Medicare" is exempt from the anti-age-bias law.

Advocates for companies and labor unions openly disagreed with AARP and applauded the outcome. They said this compromise rule would encourage employers to maintain health coverage for their retirees. Otherwise, employers might drop all benefits for former employees, they said.

They said it would prove especially helpful to those younger retirees who were offered continued health care when they left full-time work.

In 2004, a survey cited by AARP found that 49 percent of the people who were retired and between the ages of 55 and 64 had health-insurance coverage from a former employer. Benefits experts for private employers say the number is lower. A survey in 2005 found only 13 percent of those who retired from private companies were promised continued health care.

The legal dispute highlights what some people say is a gap in the law. Employers are not required by law to pay for health benefits for their employees or their retirees. And in most instances, they are free to change their benefit policies or to drop coverage they had offered earlier.

Over the past decade, many employers have pulled back from providing these continued benefits to their retirees because of the high cost. But until Monday it had been unclear whether it was illegal to use a worker's age — in this instance, 65 — to trigger a reduction in benefits.

On Monday, the justices also:

• Agreed to consider a case from Utah on whether police can enter a home without a search warrant when an informant already is inside and sees evidence of a crime.

• Stepped into a case in which a West Virginia man successfully challenged firearms-possession charges that were linked to alleged domestic violence.

• Turned down, for now, an appeal by a conservative group that made a movie critical of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and wanted to promote it in TV ads without complying with federal campaign-finance laws. The group, Citizens United, still can pursue its case in federal appeals court in Washington.

• Left in place an Arizona court ruling requiring a sheriff to transport inmates to abortion clinics.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.