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Friday Alert November 9, 2007
Alliance for Retired Americans
888 16th Street, N.W. - Washington DC, 20006 - (202)
974-8222 - www.retiredamericans.or
Beneficiaries Can Change
Medicare Part D Plans Beginning Next
Week
According to the Associated
Press, approximately 2 million low-income Medicare
beneficiaries who do not pay monthly premiums will have their
prescription drug plans automatically switched next year, while
others will have to shop for new Part D coverage to avoid
double-digit monthly premium increases. Drug premiums in
2008 will range from $9.80 to $107.50 per month. In a new
analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, if all enrollees were
to keep their current plans, average monthly premiums would rise
17 percent, from $27.39 to $31.99, and almost one in five
participants would see an annual increase of $120 or more.
While the cost for some of the most popular Part D coverage
options will jump dramatically - premiums for Humana Inc.'s
standard plan will increase by 71 percent - others will
decrease. The open enrollment period runs from November 15
through December 31.
New Alliance Bulletin
Highlights Retirees' Stake in Health Care
Reform
"Health Care We Can Count On" outlines
four areas of significant concern to retirees in the current
health care debate: Medicare, long-term care, retiree health
care, and the future of their families. The bulletin is
available at www.retiredamericans.org.
With polls indicating health care is Americans' highest domestic
priority, change seems imminent. But retirees need to
ensure that these changes are improvements to both coverage and
benefits. Currently, according to the report, about 4 in
10 Medicare beneficiaries spend more than one-fifth of their
incomes on health care, with 1 in 4 spending at least 30%.
A longer issue brief will follow. "Retirees demand a
health care system that provides quality care for their families
without sacrificing the benefits they have worked their entire
lives for," said George J. Kourpias, President
of the Alliance.
Senate Hearing Shines Light
on Social Security Fairness Issues
On
Tuesday, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) chaired a
Senate Finance subcommittee hearing on two provisions of Social
Security law that penalize many Alliance members, particularly
women. The provisions are the windfall elimination
provision (WEP) and the government pension offset (GPO).
Both reduce the Social Security benefits of retirees who also
receive a government pension that is not part of the Social
Security system. A half-dozen bills have been introduced
in Congress to repeal or modify these provisions. The
Washington Post reported that the offset reduces benefits
by more than $3,600 a year for more than 200,000 retirees.
The WEP uses a different Social Security benefit formula for
government retirees who receive a pension that does not include
Social Security, such as those under the Civil Service
Retirement System, and who also have enough Social
Security-covered employment to qualify for a Social Security
benefit. The WEP formula lowers the proportion of earnings
that are converted to benefits. The GPO dates to 1977 and
mirrors Social Security's "dual-entitlement" rule, which
commonly applies to two-income couples. Under that rule, a
spouse or surviving spouse receives the higher of his or her
Social Security benefit or the spousal benefit, but not
both. Efforts to repeal the two provisions have stalled,
in large part because of the cost - billions of dollars over the
next decade. Priya Sara Mathur, a witness
from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, described the "frightful shock" that hit two women,
former city employees, who lost their spousal benefits under GPO
and took a second reduction in benefits because of the
WEP. Margaret Kane, a Massachusetts
Teachers Association retiree, testified that she does not
collect Social Security benefits earned by her late
husband. "These two witnesses really drove home the lack
of fairness as the WEP and GPO provisions currently stand," said
Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the
Alliance.
Nursing Home Takeover
Frightening for Seniors
The Carlyle Group, a
global buyout firm whose portfolio includes defense and
aerospace contractors, is taking over more than 250 nursing
homes run by HCR Manor Care, the nation's largest nursing home
chain. Manor Care plans to restructure its operations once
Carlyle Group completes its takeover, a move critics say could
obscure ownership and make it more difficult to regulate
care. The leveraged buyout will saddle the nursing homes
with more than $5.5 billion in debt. The deal also
promises whopping payouts for the executive team at Manor Care,
with the chief executive officer in line to receive as much as
$186 million. Already, Manor Care homes do not live up to
care standards. Eighty-seven percent of Manor Care homes
reported staffing levels that are below even the
government-recommended minimum levels. The buyout will
further squeeze budgets at these homes, making a potentially
dangerous situation worse. The Service Employees
International Union (SEIU), along with the Alliance and several
other senior advocacy organizations, has sponsored an effort to
protect the residents and workers at Manor Care
facilities. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal
and Roll Call ran the groups' ad, which calls for Manor
Care to take concrete steps necessary to ensure resident quality
of care. These steps include ensuring that Manor's nursing
homes meet or exceed federal minimum resident care regulations
at all times; disclosing the impact of the buyout to nursing
home residents and their families; and structuring the buyout so
that Manor Care staff has a role in the reorganization.
Maryland/DC Alliance,
Washington State Alliance Take Action from Coast to
Coast
The Maryland/DC Alliance held its
annual convention last Friday, and Bruce Dunton
was re-elected as President. The following new officers
were elected: Reginald Grier, Treasurer;
Gloria Webster, Secretary; Jody
Oliver, Vice President; and Sadie
Coleman, Vice President. George
Kourpias and Edward Coyle, Executive
Director of the Alliance, spoke at the convention, and
David Waugh was appointed Maryland/DC Executive
Director. In Washington State, Alliance members played a
key role in the passing on Tuesday of Referendum 67 (R-67),
which allows triple damages in lawsuits alleging bad faith by
insurance companies. In addition, the Washington State
Alliance has filed a formal complaint asking the State Public
Disclosure Commission to take enforcement action against three
insurance companies for letters, which, it charged, "clearly
violate several requirements of state law." "Voters have a
right to know that the campaign against R-67 was being paid for
by the insurance companies themselves, not by individual State
Farm agents," State President Art Boulton
said.
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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