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Friday Alert
Friday, June 5, 2009(Alliance for Retired Americans)
Senators Baucus, Kennedy Offer
Different Visions for Health Care
Reform
The Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the
Senate Finance Committee have adopted different
views on health care reform. The chairs
of each committee, Senators Ted
Kennedy (D-MA) and Max
Baucus (D-MT), respectively, are
spearheading the reform, and it is clear how
their committees have shaped their
priorities. Kennedy has advocated a
separate government entity, one that is closely
modeled off Medicare, while Baucus believes
this public plan should be used as a last
resort if insurance companies are unable to
provide affordable coverage within the next few
years. "Private insurers have proved to
be inadequate in their coverage. More
often than not, someone who is in desperate
need of care will be turned away because of
pre-existing conditions," commented
Edward F. Coyle, Executive
Director of the Alliance. Hospital
executives and doctors appreciate that private
insurers can offer them substantially more
money than a public insurance option. On
Wednesday, Baucus met with single-payer
activists, some of whom were arrested last
month for disrupting Finance Committee health
care hearings. President
Obama has expressed his support for a
public insurance option, working alongside
private industries, as a way to expand coverage
to all Americans.
Social Security and VA Benefits
Inadequately Protected in Banks
A
loophole in federal banking rules exists,
allowing nefarious creditors to garnish
retirees' Social Security and Veterans'
benefits. While federal law is designed
to protect these benefits from most creditors,
several bill collectors have legally
manipulated banks into temporarily freezing
their customers' accounts while the issue is
sorted out. This ploy by creditors has
intensified since the substantial increase in
direct deposit, which is used by 80% of Social
Security recipients. Lawmakers from both
parties are calling upon the Obama
Administration to issue new, tighter
regulations to prevent some banks from seizing
funds that were placed in an account via direct
deposit. Sen. Herb Kohl
(D-WI), Chairman of the Senate Special
Committee on Aging, and other lawmakers have
introduced a bill that would stop further
promotion of the direct deposit programs for
Social Security and veterans' benefits until
the Treasury Department issues rules to protect
the benefits from creditors. "The
Alliance recognizes the vulnerability of direct
deposit for retirees, and it is imperative that
we press the Department of Treasury to close
this existing loophole," said Barbara
J. Easterling, President of the
Alliance, in support of Sen. Kohl's bill.
Taxing Health Benefits Costly to the
Northeast, Middle Class
The red
state, blue state divide has once again been
exacerbated as a result of the current debate
on health care reform. According to
The Washington Post, the possibility
of taxing health benefits to expand coverage to
all Americans would largely be at the expense
of the more liberal blue states. Private
businesses assert that taxing benefits would
raise an impressive $246 billion a year.
However, this tax will result in a considerable
regional shift, falling primarily on northeast
middle class families, who have higher coverage
rates and significantly better benefits than
the South and West, due in part to better
employment patterns and stronger labor
unions. In attempts to deliver a
better-balanced plan, proposals to tax benefits
for workers above a certain income level have
been discussed by Members of Congress.
President Obama campaigned against this in 2008
but said he would consider it in a meeting with
senators last week. "As coverage is
inequitable on a regional scale, taxing
benefits will fall almost entirely on middle
class workers with good benefits," argues
Ruben Burks,
Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance.
"This is unfair, since many workers gave up
other forms of compensation in past
negotiations in order to obtain those medical
benefits."
California, Pennsylvania Governors
Try to Work Around Budget
Crises
California's social
services, much like every other state, have
been negatively affected by the budget
crisis. Their Aging and Adult Services
Program recently laid off two-thirds of their
employees, and this has had dire consequences
for seniors, who now lack adequate social
service resources provided by the state. For
example Contra County, California has been so
depleted of its resources that the Adult
Protection Program is unable to investigate
seniors' complaints of financial and physical
abuse. Pennsylvania, on the other hand,
has been more successful in aiding retirees
during hard financial times. According to
the The Philadelphia Inquirer, Gov.
Ed Rendell is working on
legislation to raise income eligibility limits
for seniors to qualify for PACENET, the state's
prescription-drug program. He proposes to
fund this not through taxpayers, but through
the Pennsylvania Lottery, requiring
pharmaceutical companies to provide the state
the same drug rebates that it gives to the
federal government.
Alliance Polls: Results are in on
Stimulus Check Question, New Poll Now
Posted
The results of the
Alliance's latest on-line poll are in, and with
252 people responding, 74% said they plan to
spend their stimulus check. Twenty-six
percent plan to save it. Seniors should
have received their stimulus checks by
yesterday. Go to www.retiredamericans.org
to take part in the Alliance's latest poll, "Do
you think Congress will pass universal health
care in 2009?"
Florida, North Carolina Alliance
State Chapters Hold Their
Conventions
The Florida Alliance
held its annual convention in Orlando this
week. Edward Coyle covered health care as
well as Social Security. On Wednesday,
Richard Fiesta, Director of
the national Alliance’s Department of
Government and Political Affairs, spoke about
health care at the North Carolina convention in
Clemmons, NC.
Alliance Legislative Conference to
Include HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius as
Speaker
Less than two weeks remain
until the Alliance's 2009 Legislative
Conference, which will take place June 15-18 in
Washington, DC at the Washington Hilton.
Share ideas with new Administration officials
who are friendly on retiree issues! The
Alliance has confirmed the Secretary of the
Department of Health and Human Services,
Kathleen Sebelius, as a
speaker. Other scheduled speakers include
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and
numerous leaders at the forefront of the labor
movement. To register, call
1-888-373-6497, e-mail Joni
Jones at jjones@retiredamericans.org
or go to www.unionvoice.org/retirees/events/conf_2009/details.tcl.