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Friday Alert April 21, 2008
Alliance for Retired Americans
888 16th Street, N.W. - Washington DC, 20006 - (202)
974-8222 - www.retiredamericans.or
Northeastern Regional
Meeting Coincides with Pennsylvania's
Primary
On Thursday and Friday of last
week, the Alliance held its Northeastern Regional Meeting -
the second of four regional meetings - in Philadelphia,
PA. Gerald McEntee, President of the
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME), and former first-daughter
Chelsea Clinton represented U.S.
presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton
at the meeting, while Rep. Chaka Fattah
(D-PA) represented U.S. presidential candidate Sen.
Barack Obama. Ellie
Kuhns, Executive Vice President of the Pennsylvania
Alliance, was among the inspiring speakers who addressed the
attendees. The following newly-elected sub-regional
board members to the Alliance Executive Board were sworn in:
Kevin Lynch; Nancy True;
Carl Paullet; and John
Bloch. Locations and dates for later
conferences are: Midwestern Regional Conference, April
28-29, 2008 in St. Louis, MO; and Southern Regional
Conference, June 4-5, 2008 in Orlando, FL. For copies
of the official registration forms, call 1-888-373-6497,
email Joni Jones at jjones@retiredamericans.org,
or visit www.retiredamericans.org.
The Western Regional Meeting took place in Las Vegas, NV in
March. Pennsylvanians vote on Tuesday, April 22nd in
the presidential primary.
McCain Medicare Plan
Targets Seniors in Favor of Drug, Insurance
Companies
On April 15, Senator John
McCain released a plan that would charge many seniors higher
prices for their prescription drugs and jeopardize the
long-term future of Medicare by means-testing the Medicare
Part D Prescription Drug Program. Such a scheme would
erode the viability of Medicare, as higher premiums could
lead many to opt out of these health plans. Moreover,
it would weaken the universal social insurance nature of
Medicare. While Sen. McCain proposed charging many
seniors more for their prescriptions, he ignored the
opportunity to finally end the pharmaceutical industry’s
sweetheart deal prohibiting Medicare from negotiating bulk
discounts from drug manufacturers. Also ignored were
the taxpayer subsidies to large insurance companies –
estimated to be $150 billion over the next ten years – to
operate privatized Medicare Advantage plans at a cost
between 12 and 19% higher than allowing Medicare to serve
these same people directly. “This plan – when paired
with the Senator’s recent comments in support of a
privatized Social Security system tied to the whims of Wall
Street – should be of great concern to current and future
retirees,” said Edward Coyle, Executive
Director of the Alliance.
Co-Payments for
High-Priced Drugs Rise Beyond Reach
A new
insurance company pricing system for prescription drugs
means seriously ill patients are being burdened with massive
bills. According to a recent report by The New
York Times, more and more providers are requiring
patients to pay thousands of dollars for hundreds of
expensive medications that may halt or slow the progression
of serious diseases such as cancer, hepatitis C, multiple
sclerosis, hemophilia, and rheumatoid arthritis. Under
the new structure, beneficiaries no longer pay a fixed
price, such as $10, $20 or $30, to fill a prescription,
regardless of the medication’s actual cost. Patients
are instead charged 20% to 33% of the total drug cost, which
can run as high as thousands of dollars per month. As
there are no cheaper or generic versions of the
prescriptions available, the choice is between paying the
exorbitant prices or going without crucial
medications. Often called Tier 4, this system has
quickly spread from the Medicare drug plans where it
originated. While five years ago Tier 4 was rare to
nonexistent in private plans, ten percent now have the drug
category, with some plans even requiring higher co-payments
for the most expensive prescriptions in a Tier 5.
These tiers now are now the fastest-growing plans in private
insurance. “The sickest patients have enough on their
plates without adding new financial worries,” said
Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the
Alliance. “This trend is bad not just for seniors, but
for society in general.”
2007: A Very Good Year to
be a Pharmaceutical CEO
The current
economic downturn has yet to reach the CEOs of the nation’s
largest pharmaceutical companies. Some annual
paychecks, according to the AFL-CIO’s newly-released study
of executive compensation: Abbott Laboratories, $31.9
million; Johnson & Johnson, $29.6 million; Wyeth, $24.1
million; and Merck, $19.3 million. “At a time when
millions of Americans are struggling to afford their
prescriptions, we must educate our fellow retirees about why
drugs cost so much,” said Alliance President George
J. Kourpias. The study used data from the
Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Golden Years
Really Are the Happiest for Many
Seniors
New research from the University
of Chicago finds the happiest Americans are the oldest, with
life getting better in an individual’s own perception as one
ages. Sociologist Yang Yang’s study
found that, despite some drawbacks associated with old age,
older people generally have learned to be more content with
what they have than younger adults. Some may have
learned to lower their expectations and accept their
achievements. For example, an older person may realize
that it's fine to be a schoolteacher and not a Nobel prize
winner, according to one aging expert. The findings
are based on periodic face-to-face interviews with a
nationally representative sample of Americans from 1972 to
2004. About 28,000 people ages 18 to 88 took
part. In general, the odds of being happy increased 5%
with every 10 years of age. Overall, about 33% of
Americans reported being very happy at age 88, versus about
24% of those age 18 to their early 20s. Baby boomers
were found to be the least happy, with higher aspirations
than earlier generations. The study appears in April's
American Sociological Review at
www2.asanet.org/journals/asr/.
Florida Alliance
Participates in National Health Care
Month
The Florida Alliance is joining
labor and community groups to observe April’s National
Health Care Month. Activities included Florida
Alliance President Tony Fransetta speaking
to a Palm Beach Labor Council meeting on the need for
universal health care. To help with advocacy efforts,
Fransetta urged workers and retirees to share their personal
health care stories with both the public and
policymakers. The Florida Alliance is helping to
distribute fact sheets and DVDs on the nation’s health care
crisis.
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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