Friday Alert   June 16, 2006
Alliance for Retired Americans
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Congress May Consider Changes to New Medicare Law
Congress may consider changes to the 2003 Medicare law, according to a report in The Hill newspaper, which said the action might not occur until a lame-duck session after the November elections.  Lawmakers likely will look to offset billions of dollars of new Part D spending with reductions in other areas of Medicare.  The main impetus for tackling Medicare is a desire by many lawmakers to prevent a cut in Medicare's payments to physicians.  However, the Congressional Budget Office has projected that even maintaining the current payment level for one year would cost about $10 billion.  Under a complicated formula, doctors would see an estimated 5 percent pay cut next year.  The nursing home and physical therapy lobbies are pushing Congress to postpone strict limits on how much physical, speech and occupational therapy beneficiaries can receive in one year.  Caps on those services are due to take effect January 1.  Pharmacies also have gained support for legislation requiring Part D plans to pay drug claims within two weeks.  The administration and congressional leaders have remained cool to the idea of legislation preventing beneficiaries who missed the May 15 enrollment deadline for Part D from being assessed a 7% premium penalty for life if they enroll later.  "I know Congress is worried about doctors," said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance.  "I hope they also remember to worry about seniors."

Alliance WHCoA Delegates Win on Conference Report
The White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) policy committee voted 6-5 to include all 50 resolutions adopted at the Conference into the final report, along with strong language on how to implement the policy recommendations.  In the days leading up to the vote, Alliance members had mobilized to defeat an effort to include only 10 of the 50 recommendations into the main section of the report.  Proponents of such a move would have relegated the policy guidance on the other 40 resolutions into a Volume Two of the final report.  "Alliance Delegates to the WHCoA mobilized on short notice to make this victory possible.  These outstanding activists worked hard at the Conference and didn't want their policy recommendations shoved under the rug," said Alliance Executive Director Edward Coyle.  The full report is expected to be released mid-July.

Budget Cuts Would Worsen Enforcement Crisis at EEOC - Alliance Speaks Out
Despite a mounting inability of the federal government to adequately investigate claims of workplace discrimination, President Bush is proposing a $4 million budget cut for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  The agency, which has lost 20% of its workforce since 2001, received over 75,000 complaints in 2005, but yet its backlog of unresolved cases is expected to soon reach 48,000.  "With many Americans hitting the 'silver ceiling', where age discrimination prevents continued employment or advancement, workers need to be able to rely on the EEOC to help ensure fair treatment in the workplace," said Edward Coyle at a press conference in Washington, D.C. with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and other organizations.

E-Mailing Congress Just got Harder
In response to a request by the office of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) in January, the House of Representatives last month began to make it harder for interest groups to send large numbers of e-mails to lawmakers.  According to the Washington Post, House managers are adding what they call a logic puzzle to the barriers that constituents must overcome before e-mailing members.  In addition to a zip code question that proves residency in a Member's district, the system now used by a growing number of lawmakers asks e-mailers to solve a simple numbers problem.  For example, "What is 5 minus 1?"  Or, "24: What number appears at the beginning of this question?" The idea is that only an actual person would be able to complete the puzzle and automated mass e-mail programs would be unable to blast offices with repeated form messages.  About 60 Members have added the logic puzzle feature to their web sites.  Opponents of the questions justifiably worry that by curbing the overall volume of electronic communication e-mails from genuinely concerned constituents will also be restricted.  Ironically, a new loophole in election spending regulations also noted in the Washington Post is likely to produce a flood of unsolicited e-mails to voters -- and extensive complaints about political spam.  Under the loophole, individuals or groups not affiliated with campaigns could use mass e-mailings to affect the outcome of congressional races and remain anonymous.  The Federal Election Commission (FEC) voted unanimously March 26 not to regulate political communication on the Internet, including e-mails, blogs and web sites.

Bert and Annabel Seidman Prize Awarded to Sheet Metal Worker
This week, the Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund (Alliance Educational Fund) awarded its first Bert and Annabel Seidman Prize for Advancing Social Policy to National Labor College (NLC) student-writer Robert Gartner, a sheet metal worker from Heath, Ohio.  The Alliance Educational Fund designed the prize to honor the Seidmans, whose lifelong passion for social justice and worker rights inspired their careers.  The purpose of the prize, which comes with a cash award of $3,000, is to encourage NLC students who are interested in the aging field and advanced aging studies to research and analyze social policies that affect the older population.  The winning entry focused on health care by tying the cost of health insurance for sheet metal workers to their timetable for retiring.  "Bert and Annabel would love this prize paper, because it focuses on the key decision older workers must make about retiring early, paying for health care and quality of life," said George J. Kourpias, Alliance Educational Fund president.

Did You Know...
A recent review by the state of New York's Health Department found that up to 14 percent of nursing home residents were healthy enough to be in more independent settings not currently offered to them (The Associated Press).

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