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Friday Alert
Monday, April 21, 2008
(Alliance for Retired Americans)
Northeastern Regional Meeting
Coincides with Pennsylvania’s
Primary
On Thursday and Friday of
last week, the Alliance held its Northeastern
Regional Meeting - the second of four regional
meetings - in Philadelphia, PA. Gerald
McEntee, President of the American
Federation of State, County, and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME), and former first-daughter
Chelsea
Clinton represented U.S. presidential
candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton at the meeting,
while Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA) represented
U.S. presidential candidate Sen. Barack
Obama. Ellie Kuhns, Executive Vice
President of the Pennsylvania Alliance, was
among the inspiring speakers who addressed the
attendees. The following newly-elected
sub-regional board members to the Alliance
Executive Board were sworn in: Kevin Lynch;
Nancy
True; Carl Paullet; and John
Bloch. Locations and dates for
later conferences are: Midwestern
Regional Conference, April 28-29, 2008 in St.
Louis, MO; and Southern Regional Conference,
June 4-5, 2008 in Orlando, FL. For copies
of the official registration forms, call
1-888-373-6497, email Joni Jones at jjones@retiredamericans.org,
or visit www.retiredamericans.org.
The Western Regional Meeting took place in Las
Vegas, NV in March. Pennsylvanians vote
on Tuesday, April 22nd in the presidential
primary.
McCain Medicare Plan Targets Seniors in
Favor of Drug, Insurance Companies
On
April 15, Senator John McCain released a plan that
would charge many seniors higher prices for
their prescription drugs and jeopardize the
long-term future of Medicare by means-testing
the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug
Program. Such a scheme would erode the
viability of Medicare, as higher premiums could
lead many to opt out of these health
plans. Moreover, it would weaken the
universal social insurance nature of
Medicare. While Sen. McCain proposed
charging many seniors more for their
prescriptions, he ignored the opportunity to
finally end the pharmaceutical industry’s
sweetheart deal prohibiting Medicare from
negotiating bulk discounts from drug
manufacturers. Also ignored were the
taxpayer subsidies to large insurance companies
– estimated to be $150 billion over the next
ten years – to operate privatized Medicare
Advantage plans at a cost between 12 and 19%
higher than allowing Medicare to serve these
same people directly. “This plan – when
paired with the Senator’s recent comments in
support of a privatized Social Security system
tied to the whims of Wall Street – should be of
great concern to current and future retirees,”
said Edward
Coyle, Executive Director of the
Alliance.
Co-Payments for
High-Priced Drugs Rise Beyond Reach
A
new insurance company pricing system for
prescription drugs means seriously ill patients
are being burdened with massive bills.
According to a recent report by The New York
Times, more and more providers are
requiring patients to pay thousands of dollars
for hundreds of expensive medications that may
halt or slow the progression of serious
diseases such as cancer, hepatitis C, multiple
sclerosis, hemophilia, and rheumatoid
arthritis. Under the new structure,
beneficiaries no longer pay a fixed price, such
as $10, $20 or $30, to fill a prescription,
regardless of the medication’s actual
cost. Patients are instead charged 20% to
33% of the total drug cost, which can run as
high as thousands of dollars per month.
As there are no cheaper or generic versions of
the prescriptions available, the choice is
between paying the exorbitant prices or going
without crucial medications. Often called
Tier 4, this system has quickly spread from the
Medicare drug plans where it originated.
While five years ago Tier 4 was rare to
nonexistent in private plans, ten percent now
have the drug category, with some plans even
requiring higher co-payments for the most
expensive prescriptions in a Tier 5.
These tiers now are now the fastest-growing
plans in private insurance. “The sickest
patients have enough on their plates without
adding new financial worries,” said Ruben Burks,
Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance.
“This trend is bad not just for seniors, but
for society in general.”
2007: A Very Good
Year to be a Pharmaceutical CEO
The
current economic downturn has yet to reach the
CEOs of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical
companies. Some annual paychecks,
according to the AFL-CIO’s newly-released study
of executive compensation: Abbott Laboratories,
$31.9 million; Johnson & Johnson, $29.6
million; Wyeth, $24.1 million; and Merck, $19.3
million. “At a time when millions of
Americans are struggling to afford their
prescriptions, we must educate our fellow
retirees about why drugs cost so much,” said
Alliance President George J. Kourpias. The
study used data from the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Golden Years Really
Are the Happiest for Many Seniors
New
research from the University of Chicago finds
the happiest Americans are the oldest, with
life getting better in an individual’s own
perception as one ages. Sociologist Yang Yang’s
study found that, despite some drawbacks
associated with old age, older people generally
have learned to be more content with what they
have than younger adults. Some may have
learned to lower their expectations and accept
their achievements. For example, an older
person may realize that it's fine to be a
schoolteacher and not a Nobel prize winner,
according to one aging expert. The
findings are based on periodic face-to-face
interviews with a nationally representative
sample of Americans from 1972 to 2004.
About 28,000 people ages 18 to 88 took
part. In general, the odds of being happy
increased 5% with every 10 years of age.
Overall, about 33% of Americans reported being
very happy at age 88, versus about 24% of those
age 18 to their early 20s. Baby boomers
were found to be the least happy, with higher
aspirations than earlier generations. The
study appears in April's American
Sociological Review at www2.asanet.org/journals/asr/.
Florida Alliance
Participates in National Health Care
Month
The Florida Alliance is joining
labor and community groups to observe April’s
National Health Care Month. Activities
included Florida Alliance President Tony
Fransetta speaking to a Palm Beach Labor
Council meeting on the need for universal
health care. To help with advocacy
efforts, Fransetta urged workers and retirees
to share their personal health care stories
with both the public and policymakers.
The Florida Alliance is helping to distribute
fact sheets and DVDs on the nation’s health
care crisis.