Friday Alert   May 5, 2006
Alliance for Retired Americans
888 16th Street, N.W. -  Washington DC, 20006 - (202) 974-8222 - www.retiredamericans.or

Administration Attempts to Create a Social Security and Medicare Crisis
The financial condition of Social Security and Medicare worsened over the year, according to the report released this week by the trustees who monitor the fiscal health of the Medicare and Social Security programs.  Three of the trustees are Cabinet secretaries of the Bush administration.  The annual report predicts the Medicare hospital insurance trust fund will be depleted by 2018, two years earlier than reported last year.  Social Security will reportedly see its trust fund depleted by 2040, one year earlier than previously stated.  The new predictions are attributed to the skyrocketing costs of health care.  However, political motives to cut Medicare benefits and revive the privatization debate can safely be assumed to have a role in how the new data is being framed.
   "While there is a need for sensible patches to the Medicare and Social Security programs, the crisis state that the Bush-appointed trustees want to create simply does not exist," said George J. Kourpias, President of the Alliance.  "One of the reasons Medicare's finances deteriorated is the fatally flawed prescription drug benefit the Republican Congress has championed."  The administration now puts the cost of the drug program at $872 billion, a lower figure than originally predicted because enrollment figures have not met original expectations.

Final Push Next Week to Extend the Part D Enrollment Deadline
Despite Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt's statement on Wednesday that there will be no extension of the May 15 deadline to sign up for Medicare prescription drug coverage, activists across the country are continuing to fight for the millions of seniors who have not yet chosen a plan.  On Wednesday, May 10, Alliance members and hundreds of seniors in Washington, D.C. will attend a Capitol Hill rally.  Coordinated by the group Americans United for Change together with the Alliance, the goal is to extend the deadline and avoid late enrollment penalties.  In Wisconsin, Alliance activists will hold a press conference with a similar theme on Friday, May 12.  Arizona activists will be protesting outside the office of Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ).  Additional events are being planned in California, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.  
   "Seniors will not just suffer in silence," said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance. "Extending the deadline is the least the Administration can do, given all the headaches that have been brought on by this supposed benefit."  
 
Report Tells of Appalling Nursing Home Neglect
A new report, The Faces of Neglect: Behind the Closed Doors of Nursing Homes, commissioned by the National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, exposes the neglectful and sometimes fatal care endangering nursing home residents across the country.  The report found that 90% of nursing homes do not meet recommended standards for nursing staffing levels, and that 20,000 complaints were investigated by long-term care ombudsmen in 2004 for abuse, gross neglect and exploitation.  It is estimated that 300,000 elderly and disabled residents live in chronically deficient nursing homes where they are at risk of harm.  The timing of the report's release is important, since the federal medical malpractice bill hits the Senate floor next week.  The bill seeks to limit compensation to $250,000 for a resident who is permanently injured or killed as a result of the nursing home's abuse or neglect.  There are no provisions in the bill to improve care for nursing home residents or decrease widespread abuse and neglect.  "It is a disgrace that Congress is voting on a bill to protect nursing homes and the insurance industry instead of this country's most vulnerable citizens," George Kourpias commented.  The Alliance urges members to contact their U.S. senators and oppose S. 22, the flawed malpractice bill.

Budget News
Analysis revealed that budget reconciliation tax cuts House and Senate leaders reportedly agreed on this week would provide an average of just $20 in tax relief for the 20 percent of households in the middle of the income spectrum, but the average tax cut for households in the top one percent of the spectrum would be $13,800.  The Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities examined the major provisions expected to be included in the $70 billion tax-cut package and released the results on Thursday.  For those with incomes above $1 million, the average tax cut would be $42,000.  However, an additional tax cut - a repeal of the estate tax - may have to wait.  On Tuesday, CongressDaily PM quoted Sen. Kyl as saying that a vote on permanently repealing or reducing the estate tax could be delayed until June. "There seems to be no end to the number of ways this Congress helps out millionaires at the expense of those on a fixed income," said Edward Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance.
    In other budget news, late last week, Roll Call reported that 11 Members of the House, led by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), filed another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the "Deficit Reduction Act of 2005."  A technical error inserted by a Senate clerk resulted in different bills being passed by the House and Senate.  The legislation has been widely criticized for circumventing the constitutional process for how a bill becomes a law, as well as for cutting spending on programs for seniors and the disabled.

Open Enrollment for Insurance to Supplement Medicare
Please remember that affordable insurance to supplement Medicare is available to Alliance members through the Alliance's Retiree Health Plan!  The Retiree Health Plan Annual Open Enrollment period is underway now through July 15th, 2006.  During this period, Medicare-eligible retirees and their spouses are guaranteed acceptance with no waiting period, regardless of pre-existing health conditions.  Visit www.araretireehealth.com for further details, or call 1-866-298-9117 to receive your free Retiree Health Information Kit and your open enrollment application.  No agent will call you - everything is handled through the mail.

Did You Know...
Medicare beneficiaries will be asked to pay 11% more in Part B premiums next year?  The current Medicare Part B monthly premium of $88.50 will be raised to $98.20 in 2007.  Premium costs have more than doubled since 2000, when Medicare charged $45.50 a month.

Become part of a progressive grassroots movement! Join the Alliance: www.retiredamericans.org/join