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Friday Alert
Friday, August 1, 2008(Alliance for Retired Americans)
Guiding Principles for Medicare
Released as Program Celebrates its 43rd
Birthday
The Alliance marked the
43rd birthday of Medicare on Wednesday with
celebrations around the country and the release
of a comprehensive roadmap for the program’s
future in Washington, DC. The Leadership
Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO),
representing 56 national senior membership
organizations – including the Alliance -
committed to the well-being of America’s
seniors, announced a set of principles designed
to guide Congress as it pursues the national
goal of restoring the promise of
Medicare. Medicare has been a cornerstone
of the health and security of America’s seniors
since President Lyndon B. Johnson
signed it into law on July 30, 1965,
and the principles, available at http://www.retiredamericans.org/ht/action/GetDocumentAction/i/7491
, address defined benefits, coverage,
affordability, program administration, quality
assurance, and financing and sustainability in
order to have the program remain a
success. “Thank you to Congress for
recently overriding President
Bush’s veto of H.R. 6331, the
‘Medicare Improvements for Patients and
Providers Act of 2008,’” said Edward F.
Coyle, LCAO Chair and Executive
Director of the Alliance. “That
legislation has provided us with a springboard
to look at what more we can do to keep Medicare
strong, to make Medicare all that it has the
potential to be.” Birthday celebrations
were held in several states; thanks and cakes
were delivered to Reps. Allen
Boyd and Tim Mahoney
in Tallahassee and Palm Beach County, FL, while
they were given to Reps. Chris
Murphy and Joe
Courtney in New Britain and Norwich,
CT, in recognition of all of their efforts to
improve the program and the overall health of
seniors. At Medicare birthday events in
Indianapolis, IN, and Pittsburgh, PA, all
state, local, and federal officials were
pressed to support seniors’ issues.
House Report Finds Taxpayers Pay Up
to 30% more for Prescriptions Under Part
D
In a report released July 24, the
House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform found that U.S. drug manufacturers are
reaping a windfall from taxpayers when it comes
to the privately administered Medicare Part D
program. According to the report,
taxpayers are paying up to 30% more for
prescription drugs under Medicare's Part D
program for seniors and the disabled than under
the government's Medicaid program for the
poor. This is attributable to the fact
that Part D, which was enacted in January 2006,
lacks Medicaid’s stipulation that drug
companies sell prescription drugs to the
government at discounted prices. The
report and its accompanying hearing echo the
growing debate on privatization of programs
such as Medicare.
Alliance Shapes Election Agenda with
Platform Recommendations
The senior
voice will be well represented in this year’s
presidential election, as representatives of
the Alliance are addressing the Democratic
Platform Committee. The Platform
Committee outlines the positions of the
Democratic Party, and it will set the
Democratic agenda and priorities for
2008. William G. Cea,
member of the Executive Board of the Alliance
for Retired Americans and an AFT (American
Federation of Teachers) retiree, spoke to the
platform committee in Florida about the unique
“opportunity for our nation to address the
needs of America’s seniors by protecting and
strengthening Social Security and
Medicare.” Today, Alliance Executive
Director Edward F. Coyle will join other
experts speaking at the committee’s final
event, a national hearing in Cleveland, OH,
where he will address the crossroads faced by
today’s older Americans and the national
struggle of retirees to afford health care,
prescription drugs, gas, groceries, and home
heating costs.
Active Grannies: the New Soccer
Moms?
In the publication
Politico on Tuesday, Democratic
strategist Mark Penn wrote about the enormous
importance of the senior vote in the race for
president, especially in states like Florida,
Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Penn declares
that key swing voters in this election may be
“active grannies” - empty-nesters who have
found a new freedom in their lives after their
kids have left, and who look at the world very
differently than do their kids graduating
college. Top issues in these “older
grannies’” lives include: making income after
the age of 65, fighting age discrimination,
getting plugged into technology, having access
to the latest medical treatments and good
doctors through Medicare, and dealing with
their families’ being torn apart by
career-driven migration. In the coming
months, active grannies are expected to be
major viewers of cable television, the
conventions and the debates. Fifteen
percent of seniors surveyed in a recent poll
were undecided, and 4 to 5% of undecided senior
voters could be enough to tip the
election.
Alliance Charters its 30th State:
Iowa!
On Monday, the Iowa Alliance
for Retired Americans (IARA) held its founding
convention in Des Moines, with members electing
Don Rowen as President and
James Hughes as Executive Vice
President In addition to Rowen and
Hughes, convention attendees elected
Roberta Polzin Secretary and
Keever Swenka Treasurer.
Five Congressional District Vice Presidents
were also elected: Wayne
Gross, Joyce
Hermanstorfer, Art
Staggs, Dale
Strueker, and William
Biede.
McCain’s Economic Adviser is “Father
of Privatization”
Americans United
for Change, a group that the Alliance joined in
thwarting President Bush’s efforts to privatize
Social Security in 2005, warned the nation last
Friday that Sen. McCain has
hired Martin Feldstein as his
economic adviser. Feldstein is the father
of the misguided proposal to privatize Social
Security. In 2005, The San Francisco
Chronicle quoted Feldstein as saying,
“I’ve always been opposed to Social
Security. I think it's a very unethical
program.” Ruben Burks,
Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance, said,
“Such quotes echo John McCain’s recent
statements on Social Security, in which he
called the system ‘an absolute disgrace.’
Many seniors would have lost thousands in the
stock market in recent years if privatization
had been in effect.”
Did You Know…
In the
2002 elections, 14% of voters nationwide cast
early ballots. This time, over 30% of
ballots will be cast early, and that portion
could be as high as a third (USA
Today).
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