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Friday Alert
Monday, June 22, 2009(Alliance for Retired Americans)
JUNE 15-18 LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE WRAP-UP EDITION
Retirees Lobby Congress on Health
Care Reform
Nearly 550 retirees
attended the Alliance's annual legislative
conference last week. On Wednesday, the
participants went to approximately 200
scheduled appointments with members of the U.S
House and Senate, lobbying their home state
elected officials in advance of key votes on
health care reform while outlining retirees'
stake in the health care debate.
Specifically, the attendees advocated for:
establishing a public plan option to compete
against private health insurance plans;
maintaining tax-free health care benefits; and
creating the opportunity for early retirees
(ages 55-64) to buy into Medicare. Other
items on the agenda: repealing the prohibition
against Medicare negotiating volume discounts
with pharmaceutical companies; ending taxpayer
subsidies to private insurance companies that
run Medicare Advantage programs; and including
the Community Living Assistance Services and
Supports (CLASS) Act in health care reform to
help Americans with the daunting costs of
long-term care. Delegates also lobbied
their lawmakers for passage of the Employee
Free Choice Act and legislation to protect and
strengthen Social Security. Before
heading to Capitol Hill, Alliance members gave
their Leadership Award to Rep. Jan
Schakowsky (D-IL), a longtime champion
for the nation's seniors. "The members of
the Alliance are lifelong activists, who bring
energy, enthusiasm and passion to their work,"
said Alliance President Barbara
Easterling. "They will be
educating and mobilizing their neighbors in the
coming weeks because they know that our country
will never be a just society until every
American has access to quality, affordable
health care."
Seniors Bestow Kourpias with the
President's Award, Name Grants in His
Honor
Even though his title may
have changed, George Kourpias is still as
active as ever in the fight for the rights of
America's workers. Kourpias, who retired
as president of the Alliance for Retired
Americans in February, was honored Wednesday
night at the conference's banquet dinner.
The former president of the Machinists (IAM),
he was the first president of the
Alliance. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer and
Alliance Executive Vice President
Richard
Trumka praised Kourpias as a
man who "every day of his life...has been
devoted to combating the forces of greed and
privatization that threaten the dignity of
those who work for their daily bread."
R. Thomas Buffenbarger, who
succeeded Kourpias as IAM president, added,
"George Kourpias brought to the Alliance for
Retired Americans the same passion of fighting
for working families that he had as president
of the Machinists union. His dedication
and untiring efforts to mobilize retirees have
put the Alliance in a strong position to help
win meaningful health care reform, protect
pensions and make sure our nation's workers
aren't shortchanged after a lifetime of
work." The Alliance, which is naming its
state grant program after Kourpias, also named
him as Alliance for Retired Americans president
emeritus. Trumka went on to congratulate
the Alliance members for the "incredible work
you've done to change the Congress in 2006, and
your encore performance in 2008, that's given
us a president who doesn't think 'union' is a
dirty word." Kourpias, in receiving the
Alliance's President's Award, added, "We have
to go out and continue to build and organize
clubs and always be there to protect our Social
Security and our Medicare and help the labor
movement in these difficult economic
times."
Sebelius: Now is the Time for Health
Care Reform
Speaking in the
opening session of the legislative conference
last Monday, U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius told seniors that they could
be a big part of the historic shift in health
care policy. "This is the time [to pass
health care reform]. This is the
moment. We cannot let it pass by...[It's]
the president's number one priority," she
declared. Sebelius told the delegates that any
health care reform must include an option for a
public plan and must not tax the health
benefits that workers and retirees receive
through their employers. AFSCME President
Gerald McEntee pointed out
that President Obama received
a higher percentage of votes from union
retirees than any other group of voters.
McEntee, who heads the AFL-CIO Political
Committee, said health care reform is just one
of the ways that "we're taking back our nation
for working families and retirees."
Communications Workers of America
President Larry Cohen said on
Tuesday that lawmakers must also hear that the
Employee Free Choice Act is vital to rebuilding
the nation’s middle class.
Additional Speakers Complete the
Line-Up
Other experts in their
fields who spoke at the conference included:
Ruben Burks,
Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance;
James Hoffa, President of the
Teamsters; Edward F. Coyle,
Executive Director of the Alliance;
Judy Cato, Executive Vice
President of the Alliance; Richard
Fiesta, Director of the national
Alliance's Department of Government and
Political Affairs; Steve
Protulis, Executive Vice President of
the Elderly Housing Development &
Operations Corp.; and several others.
Burks remarked that the
problems facing the auto industry and the
nation are connected. "We have let the
Wal-Marts and the Wall Streets of the world run
roughshod over our nation's labor laws," he
said.
Drug Companies Pledge $80 Billion
for Seniors, Health Care
Reform
After the conference was
over, drug makers offered to spend $80 billion
over 10 years to help older Americans afford
medicines and to lower the cost of the proposed
overhaul of the health care system. In a
statement, President Obama said an agreement
reached between drug makers and Sen.
Max Baucus (D-MT), the
chairman of the Finance Committee, narrowed the
'doughnut hole' in the Medicare
prescription-drug program that raises costs for
many retirees. Said Coyle, "This
agreement is a good first step, and now we need
to make it stand by writing it into the final
bill. It was only weeks ago that we had a
similar meeting at the White House, only to
have the agreements questioned after the
meeting ended." He added, "Studies show
that people in the donut hole often stop buying
their prescriptions, because they are unable to
wait for catastrophic coverage to kick
in. The drug companies are losing
business from donut hole victims."
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