Printable Version
Friday Alert 2/1/08
Friday, February 1, 2008
(Alliance for Retired Americans)
State of
the Union and FY ’09 Budget Offers Seniors
Little
Only 159 words were devoted to
health care in President Bush’s State of the
Union address Monday night, in which he asked
Congress for new suggestions on Social Security
and Medicare. With health care and prescription
drug costs on the rise, the failure to offer
any new ideas was seen as a missed
opportunity. In addition, the President
will propose significant cuts to Medicare in
the budget he releases this Monday. The New York
Times reports that Medicare will have $6
billion less next year, and will be shorted $91
billion from 2009 to 2013. These cuts do
not include any changes the President will
propose through new regulations, which do not
have to be approved by Congress. The
majority of cuts will be in payments to nursing
homes, home care agencies, hospitals, hospices
and ambulances. While the White House has
typically cited the recommendations of the
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) -
an independent federal panel - to defend past
budgets, the Bush Administration explicitly
ignored MedPAC’s advice this year.
“President Bush is attacking the most
vulnerable – seniors who need Medicare to
afford to see a doctor – while at the same
time giving billions in subsidies to insurance
companies to run privatized Medicare plans,”
said Edward
Coyle, Executive Director of the
Alliance. “While many retirees continue
to pay more for their prescriptions, the
Administration bans Medicare from negotiating
volume discounts with the big drug
companies. Is this what Bush meant by
being a ‘compassionate
conservative?’”
Battle Looms Over
Stimulus Bill
The U.S. House voted
385-35 on Tuesday to approve a $146 billion
fiscal stimulus package to jolt the
economy. Senate Democratic leaders said
that they are short of the 60 votes needed to
advance their own $157 billion economic
stimulus package, passed by the Finance
Committee on Wednesday, and would have no
choice but to adopt the less expensive plan
approved by the House when the full Senate
considers the stimulus on Wednesday, February
6th. Aides predicted two amendments to
the House bill would pass in the Senate,
however: an increase in funding for the
low-income home energy assistance program and
rebates for low-income Social Security
recipients and disabled veterans. The
House stimulus plan would provide tax rebates
of up to $600 for individuals and up to $1,200
for couples filing jointly. It would
provide minimum payments of $300 to individuals
with at least $3,000 in earned income, and an
additional payment of $300 per child. The
rebates would be phased out for individuals
earning more than $75,000 and couples earning
more than $150,000. The Senate bill would
provide payments of $500 each to approximately
20 million low-income Americans older than 62
who are living only on Social Security
benefits. Seniors who had $3,000 in
Social Security benefits would also qualify,
even if they earned too little to pay income
taxes. They would not receive checks
under the House plan. The National
Committee to Preserve Social Security and
Medicare has provided access to their toll-free
number, 1-800-998-0180, to generate calls to
Senate offices urging support for the Senate
proposal. “Seniors worked hard
throughout their lives, and they deserve the
same rebate as any current wage earner,” said
Ruben
Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the
Alliance.
Kaiser Documents
Prescription Drug Plan Restrictions on
Obtaining Medications
The Kaiser
Family Foundation has issued two new
“Medicare Part D Data Spotlights” focusing
on Medicare drug plan formularies and
utilization management techniques. The
spotlights are available at http://www.kff.org/medicare/med102507pkg.cfm.
The first spotlight focuses on formularies (the
list of covered drugs) of Medicare stand-alone
prescription drug plans and differences in how
plans cover brand-name and generic drugs. The
analysis finds that 91% of drug plans cover a
majority of the generic sample drugs, while
only 28% of plans cover a majority of
brand-name sample drugs. The second
spotlight examines three techniques used by
stand-alone prescription drug plans to manage
enrollees’ use of formulary drugs: quantity
limits, prior authorization, and step therapy
rules that require enrollees to try one or more
specific drugs before covering certain
medications. Utilization management
restrictions are more common in 2008 than in
2006, with 30% of sample drugs subject to some
use restriction in 2008, up from 20% in
2006.
Robert Ball, Social Security
Commissioner and Icon, Dies
Robert M.
Ball, 93, a major figure in Social
Security policy and the disability insurance
field for the past 60 years, died on Tuesday in
Mitchellville, Maryland. Mr. Ball joined
Social Security just four years after President
Franklin D.
Roosevelt created the program in 1935,
and ran it from 1962 to 1973. He oversaw
the increase of Social Security benefits and
the introduction of automatic cost-of-living
adjustments. By 1962, he became
commissioner, a job he held longer than anyone
else before or since. He was appointed by
Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon
Johnson, and Richard Nixon before resigning in
1973. He worked behind the scenes
to defeat President Ronald Reagan's first attempt to
slash benefits, and headed off proposals in
1996 and 2004 to privatize Social
Security. He was also one of the chief
architects of Medicare and administered it for
its first seven years. “He was the
country’s best advocate for seniors and most
effective defender of Social Security,” said
George J.
Kourpias, President of the
Alliance. “He was truly an American
hero.”
National Alliance’s Regional
Conferences Coming Up
In a little
more than two months, the national Alliance
will hold its first regional conference of 2008
in Las Vegas, NV. The Western Regional
Conference - March 24-26 - will offer members
an opportunity to work with other activists in
the region to set the course for the Alliance
and a country that cares about workers,
retirees and their families. Attendees
will learn how to get seniors and retirees
registered and voting; increase grassroots
advocacy; and educate federal, state and local
legislators on issues like prescription drugs,
Medicare, Social Security and retirement
security. Details for the other regional
conferences are as follows: Northeastern
Regional Conference, April 17-18, 2008 in
Philadelphia, PA; Midwestern Regional
Conference, April 28-29, 2008 in St. Louis, MO;
and Southern Regional Conference, June 4-5,
2008 in Orlando, FL. For official registration
forms for your regional conference, call
1-888-373-6497, email Joni Jones at jjones@retiredamericans.org,
or visit our website at www.retiredamericans.org.
Related Documents
- Friday Alert 2/1/08
Friday Alert 2/1/08