Friday Alert   April 20, 2007
Alliance for Retired Americans
888 16th Street, N.W. -  Washington DC, 20006 - (202) 974-8222 - www.retiredamericans.or

Senate Blocks Effort to Lower Medicare Costs
On April 18, the U.S. Senate blocked consideration of a bill, S. 3, to remove the prohibition on Medicare negotiating price discounts with the pharmaceutical companies.  It would also have forced drug plan providers to reveal currently secret pricing data to government watchdogs.  Senators allied with the drug industry launched a filibuster to block the bill, and the April 18 vote of 55-42 fell short of the 60 votes needed under Senate rules to move to a full debate on the bill.  Six Republicans joined Senate Democrats in supporting the measure.  Earlier in the week, the White House announced it would veto the bill if it passed.  In January, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill mandating Medicare price negotiations.  In the wake of the April 18 vote, several Senators have pledged to attach the S. 3 provisions to other legislation this year.  "A powerful bloc of Senators gave the pharmaceutical industry a victory at the expense of seniors who struggle to afford their prescriptions.  Those Senators even blocked a full and public debate over the sweetheart deal the drug companies won in the 2003 Medicare law," said Alliance executive director Edward F. Coyle.

Alliance Members Mobilize in Large Numbers for Senate Medicare Vote
While the outcome of the April 18 vote in the U.S. Senate was disappointing (see previous story), Alliance members sent more than 5,000 e-mails to their Senators in the days leading up to the vote and came through with a multitude of phone calls and office visits.  "Many thanks to all who took the time to contact their Senators," said Alliance president George J. Kourpias.  "The next step is to educate seniors about whether their Senators stood with the big drug companies or with retirees in their state.  The Senators who voted wrong are not going to tell their constituents what they did.  So it is up to us.  Tell your neighbors that this is yet another example of how politics affects our daily lives."  In the hours after the vote, the Alliance issued press releases in a number of key states where Senators voted wrong, plus disseminated sample letters to the editor for activists to send their local papers.

Alliance 2007-2008 Legislative Agenda Available for Viewing
With older Americans in 2007 confronting threats both from abroad and at home, the nation is dealing with major budget and spending issues.  Simultaneously, older Americans face increased health care costs that are far outpacing general inflation.  And Social Security is still threatened by privatization and attempts to reduce benefits.  See how the Alliance is facing these issues by viewing our 2007-2008 Legislative Agenda at www.retiredamericans.org/ht/d/sp/i/341/pid/341.

Medicare Part B Refunds Taking Much Longer Than Expected
Seniors who belonged to certain HMOs last year, including Humana, have waited as long as 15 months for Medicare to pay refunds due to them, because of computer problems. Even after so long a delay, no one can say when the money might arrive, according to a South Florida Sun-Sentinel article last week.  Seniors are due refunds if they belonged to one of the few HMOs that paid all or part of their members' 2006 Medicare part B premiums, which were $88.50 per month.  The HMOs sent the money to Medicare to be distributed to the recipients, but not all the people got their refunds, which add up to as much as $1,062 per person for the year.  Medicare officials blame computer glitches and incorrect data entries for snarling the refund process.  They say Medicare could not cleanly transmit data to Social Security computers, preventing the refunds from being credited to recipients' checks.  At the peak of the problem last summer, about 600,000 people nationwide were owed refunds.  Medicare has been chipping away at the problem but still has a backlog of tens of thousands of unpaid refunds, a Medicare spokeswoman said.  Most of the problems are in Florida, Texas and Nevada.

Genetic Discrimination Bill Advancing in U.S. House and Senate
After years of debate, Congress is poised to enact legislation imposing a federal ban on genetic discrimination in health insurance and employment decisions, according to a Newhouse News Service item and the Kaiser Daily Health Report this past Tuesday.  "The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2007," already approved by committees in the House and Senate, would prohibit insurers from using genetic information of individuals or family members to determine eligibility or establish differential premiums.  The bills also would make it unlawful for an employer to discriminate because of genetic testing information.  Genetic testing is done to confirm a suspected diagnosis, to predict the possibility of future illness, to detect whether individuals are carriers of a disease that could be passed on to their children, and to predict a response to therapy.  The House Education and Labor Committee, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee have all approved the House version of the bill, H.R. 493, which next moves to the House Rules Committee for reconciliation of the revisions made by each of the committees.  The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has approved a companion bill, S. 358.  "Discrimination is wrong, whether it's based on age, race, gender, genetics, or anything else, and I am glad this issue is being addressed," said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance.

2008 White House Race Looking Bad for Republicans Right Now
Republican leaders across the country say they are growing increasingly anxious about their party's chances of holding the White House, citing public dissatisfaction with President Bush, the political fallout from the war in Iraq and the problems their leading presidential candidates are having generating enthusiasm among conservative voters.  In interviews on April 10, Republican leaders across the country told the New York Times that they were concerned about signs of despondency among party members and fund-raisers, reflected in polls and the Democratic fund-raising advantage in the first quarter of the year.  Americans are significantly more likely to say they would vote for an unnamed Democrat over an unnamed Republican for president next year.  Republicans say that their candidates are in a difficult position as they try to distance themselves from a president who is having so many difficulties, while at the same time not alienating Republican base voters and donors who remain loyal to Mr. Bush and his foreign policy.

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