Download Retiree News & Views - July/August 2009

Health care reform legislation with a focus on including Medicare reform was the top agenda item at the Alliance for Retired Americans 2009 Legislative Conference in Washington, DC June 15-19.

“You can be a big part of the historic shift in health care policy,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the nearly 550 delegates at the opening session. “This is the time. This is the moment. We cannot let it pass by.” Health care reform is “the president's number one priority,” she declared.

Sebelius reiterated President Obama’s position that health care reform must include an option for a public plan and must not tax the health benefits that workers and retirees receive through their employers, two of the most controversial issues in the health reform effort.

The retiree delegates, from unions and community organizations, participated in workshops, plenaries, and panel discussions, and then moved out to Capitol Hill for some 200 scheduled appointments with their home state elected officials in the House and Senate. In addition to health care reform, the delegates lobbied for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which will make it easier for workers to join a union and negotiate pensions and health care benefits, and legislation to protect and strengthen Social Security.

Since the Convention

Since the convention, House Democrats introduced America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (HR 3200). The bill has been approved by two committees, Education & Labor, and Ways & Means, but is stalled in Energy & Finance. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has also approved a bill. The ARA said, “Between these two bills there are bold steps to make long-term care affordable; create a public plan option to keep a competitive balance with private insurers; help early retirees buy into affordable Medicare coverage; and begin to close the Medicare Part D donut hole. Both bills support the parts of our system which are currently working, specifically, employerprovided health coverage for workers and retirees.”

Both bills would also end taxpayer subsidies to the private Medicare Advantage programs, which can be used to improve Medicare and pay for health care reform. The House bill would help finance the cost through a graduated income surtax on the wealthiest Americans, an idea which has drawn attack from Republicans and a group of centrist and conservative Democrats, among them Reps. Joseph Crowley (Queens, Bronx) and Michael McMahon (Staten Island, Brooklyn), newly elected in a historically Republican district last fall.

Also important, an amendment to the HELP bill incorporated the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act to help Americans with longterm care costs.

The Focus Now

The ARA called for a National Week of Action the week of July 27 to coincide with Medicare’s 44th birthday on July 30, urging members to visit their legislators during the recess; write, call, fax, and e-mail them; and write letters to the editor, and talk to family and friends. These actions are ongoing.

“We are deadly serious about getting meaningful health reform passed,” said ARA President Barbara Easterling. “The next six to eight weeks are critical, they will make or break health care reform. Our most effective tools are letters and phone calls from constituents,” she emphasized.

Executive Director Ed Coyle outlined the critical issues to focus on in the coming period:

• An affordable public plan option to compete against private health insurance plans;
• No tax on benefits; it appears to have been dropped, but there are still those who are pushing for it;
• A Medicare buy-in for young retirees ages 55-64;
• Medicare Part D reform to close the donut hole coverage gap and repeal the prohibition against Medicare negotiating volume discounts with drug companies.

If we win those by October, we will have achieved a great deal, Coyle said.