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Friday Alert August 3, 2007
Alliance for Retired Americans
888 16th Street, N.W. - Washington DC, 20006 - (202)
974-8222 - www.retiredamericans.or
House Medicare Advantage Vote a Victory
for Seniors
On Wednesday night, the U.S.
House of Representatives passed H.R. 3162, “The
Children’s Health and Medicare Act of 2007,” by a
225-204 vote. The legislation expands the State
Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a federal
program for the children of the working poor, while helping
older Americans. It would expand coverage for preventive
health screening for seniors under Medicare and would provide
$19 billion over five years to prevent scheduled cuts to
physician reimbursements under Medicare. To pay for
itself, the bill would raise the federal tobacco tax by 45 cents
a pack, while making federal payments to managed-care plans
under Medicare equal to reimbursements for the federally managed
Medicare program. The reductions in overpayments to
Medicare Advantage will increase the solvency of the Medicare
Trust Fund by three years. The U.S. Senate passed a more
modest version of the SCHIP bill by a vote of 68-31 on Thursday
night, making a House-Senate conference bill likely for this
fall. “Thank you all for your hard work in phone
calls, letters to Congress and the media, and emails. It
paid off. This is a great victory for the Alliance and
seniors, because it puts us on the path to stop Medicare
privatization and improve the Medicare program,” said
Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the
Alliance. “However,” he added,
“President Bush has issued veto threats
on the legislation. So there's still work in front of
us.”
Almost all Democrats voted for the bill, shrugging off the
fierce opposition of House Republicans. There were ten Democrats
who voted against it: Reps. Dan Boren
(OK), Jim Cooper (TN), Joe
Donnelly (IN), Brad Ellsworth (IN),
Bob Etheridge (NC), Jim
Marshall (GA), Baron Hill (IN),
Mike McIntyre (NC),
Heath Shuler (NC), and Gene Taylor
(MS). Five Republicans supported the bill: Reps.
Shelley Moore Capito (WV), Michael
Ferguson (NJ), Ray LaHood (IL),
Frank LoBiondo (NJ), and Chris
Shays (CT). Reps. Yvette Clarke
(D-NY), Ander Crenshaw (R-FL), Jo Ann
Davis (R-VA), and Sam Johnson (R-TX)
did not vote.
House Votes to Allow
Re-importation
Also on Thursday night, the
House voted to keep language in the FDA funding bill that allows
for prescription drug re-importation. Rep. Jack
Kingston (R-GA) had offered an amendment to the bill
that would have struck a section that deals with re-importation,
but the amendment was defeated by a vote of 283-146.
Doctors Group and Drug Companies Make
Millions Trading Data
Despite the
disapproval of most doctors, the American Medical Association
(AMA) is continuing to sell its prescribing data to drug
companies. According to a recent article in the San
Francisco Chronicle, the AMA made over $44 million selling
data in 2005. While the AMA represents less than 30
percent of U.S. doctors, it stores and sells information on all
licensed physicians. The purchasing organizations match
physician names and contacts to prescription records bought from
pharmacies, and sell everything to the drug industry in a
process known as “prescription data-mining.”
Pharmaceutical representatives can then make personalized
pitches to doctors, using a hand-held computer with each
physician’s prescription history that they carry on sales
calls. As a result, high-priced, brand-name drugs are
prescribed more. States are increasingly acting to stop
the practice. Legislation has recently been passed in
Maine and Vermont prohibiting prescription data from being sold,
and New Hampshire is currently fighting companies who have
opposed its law, the first ban on such data-mining in the
country. “There is no limit to how far drug companies will
go to make a dollar,” said Ruben Burks,
Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance.
401(K) Participation Down
Slightly
The percentage of workers
participating in 401(k) plans dropped slightly last year to 63.1
percent, Fidelity Investments reported last week in the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The findings are based
on an analysis of more than 10 million workers in plans
administered by the Fidelity unit. While the participation
rate was marginally lower than the 63.4 percent Fidelity
reported for 2005, the value of the average 401(k) account
increased 6.5 percent last year to $66,500. Workers
contributed an average of 7 percent of their pretax pay to the
accounts last year, flat with 2005 levels. A Fidelity
spokesman said that a silver lining in the report is the
increase in the number of companies automatically enrolling
workers in 401(k) plans - a big change from the past practice of
relying on workers to enlist on their own. Legislation
enacted by Congress last year encourages employers to deduct a
certain percent of an employee's paycheck automatically and open
a 401(k) account for the worker. Once that happens, it is
up to the worker to notify the company to terminate
contributions to the plan. In plans that offered automatic
enrollment, 81 percent of those eligible had 401(k) accounts,
vs. a 53 percent participation rate in plans that did not offer
automatic enrollment, according to the report.
“Automatic enrollment seems to be having a positive effect
on saving for retirement,” said George J.
Kourpias, President of the Alliance. “But
there is still no substitute for the guarantees of defined
benefit plans.”
More Speakers Confirmed for Legislative
Conference
In just over four weeks -
September 4-7, 2007 - the Alliance will be holding its National
Legislative Meeting in Washington, D.C. The theme this
year is “Building for America’s Future.”
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), candidates for the
Democratic nomination for U.S. President in 2008, will speak,
and we are working with other presidential candidates on their
availability. The President’s Award will be
presented to Elmer Blankenship, President of
the Indiana Alliance, for his lifetime of public service on
behalf of older Americans. The Leadership Award will be
presented to Sen. Debbie A. Stabenow (D-MI) in
recognition of her years of outstanding leadership in the U.S.
Congress on behalf of older Americans. To obtain copies of
the official registration form, either call 1-888-373-6497,
email Joni Jones at jjones@retiredamericans.org
or visit our website at www.retiredamericans.org.
The conference will be held at the Hilton Washington and
Towers. Hotel reservations must be made by calling the
Hilton and Towers directly at 1-888-324-4586. Be sure to
ask for the Alliance for Retired Americans National Legislative
Meeting attendee rate.
Become part of a progressive grassroots movement!
Join the Alliance
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Alliance for Retired Americans 815 16th
St, NW Washington, DC 20006 www.retiredamericans.org
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