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Friday Alert February 1, 2008
Alliance for Retired Americans
888 16th Street, N.W. - Washington DC, 20006 - (202)
974-8222 - www.retiredamericans.or
State of the Union and FY
’09 Budget Offers Seniors Little
Only
159 words were devoted to health care in President
Bush’s State of the Union address Monday night,
in which he asked Congress for new suggestions on Social
Security and Medicare. With health care and prescription drug
costs on the rise, the failure to offer any new ideas was seen
as a missed opportunity. In addition, the President will
propose significant cuts to Medicare in the budget he releases
this Monday. The New York Times reports that
Medicare will have $6 billion less next year, and will be
shorted $91 billion from 2009 to 2013. These cuts do not
include any changes the President will propose through new
regulations, which do not have to be approved by Congress.
The majority of cuts will be in payments to nursing homes, home
care agencies, hospitals, hospices and ambulances. While
the White House has typically cited the recommendations of the
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) - an independent
federal panel - to defend past budgets, the Bush Administration
explicitly ignored MedPAC’s advice this year.
“President Bush is attacking the most vulnerable –
seniors who need Medicare to afford to see a doctor –
while at the same time giving billions in subsidies to insurance
companies to run privatized Medicare plans,” said
Edward Coyle, Executive Director of the
Alliance. “While many retirees continue to pay more
for their prescriptions, the Administration bans Medicare from
negotiating volume discounts with the big drug companies.
Is this what Bush meant by being a ‘compassionate
conservative?’”
Battle Looms Over Stimulus
Bill
The U.S. House voted 385-35 on Tuesday
to approve a $146 billion fiscal stimulus package to jolt the
economy. Senate Democratic leaders said that they are
short of the 60 votes needed to advance their own $157 billion
economic stimulus package, passed by the Finance Committee on
Wednesday, and would have no choice but to adopt the less
expensive plan approved by the House when the full Senate
considers the stimulus on Wednesday, February 6th. Aides
predicted two amendments to the House bill would pass in the
Senate, however: an increase in funding for the low-income home
energy assistance program and rebates for low-income Social
Security recipients and disabled veterans. The House
stimulus plan would provide tax rebates of up to $600 for
individuals and up to $1,200 for couples filing jointly.
It would provide minimum payments of $300 to individuals with at
least $3,000 in earned income, and an additional payment of $300
per child. The rebates would be phased out for individuals
earning more than $75,000 and couples earning more than
$150,000. The Senate bill would provide payments of $500
each to approximately 20 million low-income Americans older than
62 who are living only on Social Security benefits.
Seniors who had $3,000 in Social Security benefits would also
qualify, even if they earned too little to pay income
taxes. They would not receive checks under the House
plan. The National Committee to Preserve Social Security
and Medicare has provided access to their toll-free number,
1-800-998-0180, to generate calls to Senate offices urging
support for the Senate proposal. “Seniors worked
hard throughout their lives, and they deserve the same rebate as
any current wage earner,” said Ruben
Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance.
Kaiser Documents Prescription
Drug Plan Restrictions on Obtaining
Medications
The Kaiser Family Foundation has
issued two new “Medicare Part D Data Spotlights”
focusing on Medicare drug plan formularies and utilization
management techniques. The spotlights are available at http://www.kff.org/medicare/med102507pkg.cfm.
The first spotlight focuses on formularies (the list of covered
drugs) of Medicare stand-alone prescription drug plans and
differences in how plans cover brand-name and generic drugs. The
analysis finds that 91% of drug plans cover a majority of the
generic sample drugs, while only 28% of plans cover a majority
of brand-name sample drugs. The second spotlight examines
three techniques used by stand-alone prescription drug plans to
manage enrollees’ use of formulary drugs: quantity limits,
prior authorization, and step therapy rules that require
enrollees to try one or more specific drugs before covering
certain medications. Utilization management restrictions
are more common in 2008 than in 2006, with 30% of sample drugs
subject to some use restriction in 2008, up from 20% in
2006.
Robert Ball, Social Security
Commissioner and Icon, Dies
Robert M.
Ball, 93, a major figure in Social Security policy and
the disability insurance field for the past 60 years, died on
Tuesday in Mitchellville, Maryland. Mr. Ball joined Social
Security just four years after President Franklin D.
Roosevelt created the program in 1935, and ran it from
1962 to 1973. He oversaw the increase of Social Security
benefits and the introduction of automatic cost-of-living
adjustments. By 1962, he became commissioner, a job he
held longer than anyone else before or since. He was
appointed by Presidents John F. Kennedy,
Lyndon Johnson, and Richard
Nixon before resigning in 1973. He worked
behind the scenes to defeat President Ronald
Reagan's first attempt to slash benefits, and headed
off proposals in 1996 and 2004 to privatize Social
Security. He was also one of the chief architects of
Medicare and administered it for its first seven years.
“He was the country’s best advocate for seniors and
most effective defender of Social Security,” said
George J. Kourpias, President of the
Alliance. “He was truly an American hero.”
National Alliance’s
Regional Conferences Coming Up
In a little
more than two months, the national Alliance will hold its first
regional conference of 2008 in Las Vegas, NV. The Western
Regional Conference - March 24-26 - will offer members an
opportunity to work with other activists in the region to set
the course for the Alliance and a country that cares about
workers, retirees and their families. Attendees will learn
how to get seniors and retirees registered and voting; increase
grassroots advocacy; and educate federal, state and local
legislators on issues like prescription drugs, Medicare, Social
Security and retirement security. Details for the other regional
conferences are as follows: Northeastern Regional
Conference, April 17-18, 2008 in Philadelphia, PA; Midwestern
Regional Conference, April 28-29, 2008 in St. Louis, MO; and
Southern Regional Conference, June 4-5, 2008 in Orlando, FL. For
official registration forms for your regional conference, call
1-888-373-6497, email Joni Jones at jjones@retiredamericans.org,
or visit our website at www.retiredamericans.org.
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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