Friday Alert   December 8, 2006
Alliance for Retired Americans
888 16th Street, N.W. -  Washington DC, 20006 - (202) 974-8222 - www.retiredamericans.or

New Congress Makes Plans for First 100 Hours in 2007...
The Alliance has joined a new campaign called Change America Now (CAN), which is mounting a collective effort by nearly 40 organizations in 31 states to pass through Congress the economic elements of the "100 Hour Agenda" outlined by incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).  CAN will focus its efforts on 54 Republican and 32 Democratic districts, most represented by moderates.  The campaign will place a special focus on Republicans who were narrowly elected in November, and will be unveiled officially in Peoria, Illinois this Saturday.  The "100 Hour" name comes from the quick legislative timeframe promised by Democrats during the campaign for taking action on items including: allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, raising the minimum wage, cutting student-loan interest rates and repealing tax breaks for oil companies.  Lawmakers will have to work five days a week starting in January to accomplish the Speaker's goals.  For much of this election year, the work-week for Members of Congress started late Tuesday and ended by Thursday afternoon.  If, as expected, the 109th Congress concludes its work on Friday, members will have worked a total of 103 days - seven days fewer than the infamous "Do-Nothing Congress" of 1948.

...But Current Congress is Leaving Behind Some Unfinished Business
"Like a retreating army, Republicans are tearing up railroad track and planting legislative land mines to make it harder for Democrats to govern when they take power in Congress next month," the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.  Before leaving, Congress must approve the continued funding of federal programs at fiscal 2006 levels, because it has not, with the exception of defense and homeland security bills, agreed on any annual spending bills for the 2007 fiscal year that began Oct. 1.  The GOP plan is to stretch current funding amounts until Feb. 15, leaving the new Democratic-controlled Congress to deal with tough spending and deficit issues.  The unstated goal is to disrupt the Democratic agenda and make it harder for the new majority to meet its promise to reinstitute "pay-as-you-go" budget rules, under which new spending or tax cuts must be offset to protect the deficit from growing.  "The 110th Congress will have to succeed without the help of the 109th Congress, which abdicated its fiscal responsibility," said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance.

Alliance to Release White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) Report
The Alliance report entitled "2005 White House Conference on Aging: Neglecting A Generation" will be released on Monday, December 11th, on the conference's first anniversary.  The decennial WHCoA was held last December, but was not taken seriously by the Bush administration.  A number of attempts were made by those in charge of the 2005 conference to prevent a public discourse by the delegates on the issues important to America's aging population.  Additionally, following the conference, the work of the delegates was disregarded in an interim report to the states, with the final report failing to mention many of the delegates' recommendations.  The Alliance report showcases the actions taken during the conference, while providing an assessment of the final report from the WHCoA Policy Committee as evaluated against Alliance principles and delegates' experiences.  To see the full report after its public release, please visit our website at www.retiredamericans.org and go to "Retiree Resources."

Private Medicare More Expensive than Traditional Medicare
Private health care plans in Medicare, known as Medicare Advantage plans, cost the U.S. government $5.2 billion more than traditional Medicare coverage in 2005, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund.  The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 included a broad set of provisions intended to expand the role of private health plans in Medicare, such as sharply increasing payments to the Medicare Advantage plans.  As a result, payments to insurance providers in Medicare Advantage program were 12.4% higher than the costs in traditional fee-for-service Medicare in 2005.  "The Republicans want us to think that private health care is much more cost efficient and better for the consumers," said Edward Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance.  "In reality, their push to increase the role of private insurers in government-run programs ends up costing the government significantly more."

Trouble Again This January for Medicare Part D Participants?
Pharmacists and advocates for older Americans say they are worried that tens of thousands of low-income Medicare beneficiaries will again have trouble getting medications next month, as they did in January of this year, according to the New York Times.  Complications will include prescription drug plans changing benefits, beneficiaries changing plans, and new plans entering the market.  With these transformations, some beneficiaries will find they can no longer use the drugstores they have been using, and about 600,000 poor people will lose the guarantee of extra assistance that covered nearly all their drug costs this year.  Pharmacists and insurance counselors say that many of the 600,000 beneficiaries will not discover the change in their status until they show up at pharmacies next month.  Then they could be charged $25 to $50 or more for drugs that cost them only $3 or $5 this year.  Druggists say they also foresee problems for another group: 300,000 low-income people who will be reassigned to plans chosen at random by the federal government.  Even people who stay in the same plan may face surprises, because some of their drugs may no longer be covered.  In addition, a drug that is covered may be subject to new restrictions limiting the number of pills or requiring doctors to get advance approval for prescriptions.  Alliance President George J. Kourpias advised, "If you have any questions, take action this year.  Call your plan, but don't wait until 2007."

Did You Know...
More than 60% of senior executives say age discrimination in the workplace begins to be apparent between the ages of 50 and 55, according to a recent poll conducted by the Association of Executive Search Consultants.

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