Get Ready For Obamacare

Jan Laue Speaks for Iowa

OBAMACARE - What would you give up ?

OBAMACARE - What would you give up?

We have been hearing a lot of noise about doing away with the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” commonly referred to as “ObamaCare.” What I am trying to figure out is why is this law considered a bad thing and even more troubling to me is what would we want to give up from this landmark legislation?

Do we not want to close the so-called  “doughnut hole” coverage gap in the Medicare Prescription Drug law so seniors will no longer have to cut dangerous corners on their medications?

Do we want to reestablish co-pays for mammograms, colonoscopies and other preventive screenings that help older Americans more quickly and affordably identify and treat diseases such as cancer and diabetes?

Do we not want to cut wasteful spending to extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund so seniors can better afford premiums which have doubled over the past eight years?

Should we let insurers go back to denying coverage to pre-Medicare retirees because they have pre-existing conditions?

Should we allow insurance companies to go back to the practice of establishing lifetime limits on coverage, or allow them to drop coverage when individuals became sick, as has been the case before this law was passed?

As we recover from this recession, do we want to eliminate the provision in the Affordable Care Act that allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health care plan until age 26?

The above list only highlights some of the things we would lose if this law is overturned.  Does any of this sound like something we should do?  I don’t think so. Please think about these issues when you decide on who you will vote for this November. 

I like ObamaCare. The Affordable Care Act is only one of the many reasons why the United Steelworkers and SOAR endorsed Barack Obama for President.

Connie Entrekin, SOAR President

Grandmother Praises "Obamacare"

Alliance for Retired Americans Friday Alert 5-13-12

Alliance Members in Northeast Round out the 2012 Regional Meetings
Over 150 Alliance members from northeastern states gathered this week in Philadelphia for workshops and presentations to help educate and mobilize retirees for the 2012 elections.  Retiree activists participated in training sessions to learn the latest developments on Medicare and health care reform from experts Kathleen Otte, Jaime Torres and Joanne Grossi of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; information on how Social Security will affect this year’s elections; and strategies for grassroots organizing and fund-raising.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) spoke at the convention luncheon on Tuesday. Other speakers included Pennsylvania Alliance President Jean Friday; Secretary-Treasurer of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO Liz McElroy; national Alliance President Barbara J. Easterling; Government and Political Affairs Director Rich Fiesta, who outlined 2012 electoral issues and the importance of the senior vote; and Trishala Deb from Caring Across Generations. Paul Lemmon of Labor 2012 stressed the importance of the union retiree vote in Pennsylvania, the week’s gathering spot, his home state, and also a swing state. Cindy Smalls of the AFL-CIO discussed new state voting laws that could lower the overall turnout. Several other dynamic presenters also lent their expertise.

Alliance members elected four activists to the Regional Board – James Parent, Nancy True, Jodi Weinreich, and William Finelli. For a slideshow of event photos, go to http://bit.ly/J6yd7p.

Part of the Paul Ryan Plan Gets a Bad Review from its own Creator
The co-creator of the concept that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is relying upon to “reform” Medicare no longer thinks it will work. Henry Aaron, now of the Brookings Institution, and former Urban Institute president Robert Reischauer came up with the idea of “premium support” in 1995. Aaron got the chance to tell Ryan about his change of heart at a recent Capitol Hill hearing.

The basic idea of the Aaron-Reischauer plan is to let people pick their health insurers in the private market, subsidize the premiums, and let competition drive down costs. That’s also the theory behind Ryan's plan. It differs from Aaron's original vision -- in part because it has fewer protections for beneficiaries -- but the essential concept is the same. Aaron said this isn’t the time to test it out.

“In the years since Bob Reischauer and I put this idea forward, I've changed my mind,” Aaron told the House Ways and Means Committee. The big reason is that Aaron has seen no evidence since the two men came up with the idea that their assumptions have been borne out.

As reported and explained more fully in The Huffington Post at http://huff.to/KeR30B, a key assumption was that risk would be better adjusted among companies, so that if one insurer suddenly were saddled with an unusually expensive population, it would share the costs with other insurers or the government. That would keep costs down, because it would remove some of the incentive to cherry-pick healthier customers or shun sicker ones.

“At least when the plan was originally created, Congress regulated private industries and insurers more,” said Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance. “The Ryan plan would take the concept and remove the regulation part.”

Visit http://1.usa.gov/J0nJ9Y to view Aaron's full testimony. The Alliance thanks Karen Spivey, who posted a link for this story on our Facebook page and originally brought the story to us.

House Voter Rights Bill Aims to Stop Voter Suppression
On Thursday, Rep. John Lewis (GA), House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD), Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (SC), Rep. John Conyers (MI), and Rep. Robert Brady (PA) unveiled “The Voter Empowerment Act,” comprehensive voting rights legislation. The bill will modernize voter registration, ensure equal access to the ballot box for all Americans, and prohibit deceptive practices and voter fraud that keep people from exercising their constitutional right to vote. The legislation is aimed at combating efforts in several states to pass unprecedented laws that would prevent disabled, minority, elderly, low-income, and other Americans from casting their ballots.

“Given voter identification requirement efforts in Pennsylvania as well as many other states, this legislation is crucial,” said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance.

Medicare Legislation Would Raise Eligibility Age to 70, Threaten Federal Workers
Republicans in the Senate announced reform legislation several weeks ago that would wind down Medicare and open the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) to all Medicare-eligible seniors. The Congressional Health Care for Seniors Act (S. 2196), introduced on March 15 by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Jim DeMint (S.C.), would allow all Medicare-eligible patients to enroll in FEHBP plans beginning in 2014. The existing Medicare program eventually would sunset.

According to Federal Daily (http://bit.ly/FSigQg), the legislation also gradually would increase the initial eligibility age for seniors over a period of 20 years from age 65 to 70, at a rate of three months per year. The sponsors claim the plan would save $1 trillion over the first 10 years.

“Don’t be fooled. This proposal would end Medicare as we know it and threaten health benefits for federal employees,” Ms. Easterling said. “Given the current environment of severe budget cuts, we should all be very afraid of plans like this.”

Online Social Security Statements Provide Earnings and Benefit Information
A new online Social Security Statement is now available at www.socialsecurity.gov/mystatement. The web site provides eligible workers with secure and convenient access to their Social Security earnings and benefit information. In addition, the portal includes links to information about other online services, such as applications for retirement, disability and Medicare. In February 2012, the Social Security Administration also resumed mailing paper statements to workers age 60 and older if they are not already receiving Social Security benefits.

                  
Download a printable version of this document http://bit.ly/JcIClm.

The GOP Budget

One thing that is made perfectly clear after looking at the Ryan Budget, is that the wealthy get tax breaks and everyone else gets screwed! The budget bill, that recently passed in the House of Representatives, turns Medicare into a privatized voucher program that will lead to the demise of Medicare. Under the GOP/Ryan plan, if seniors want the same level of coverage and access to health providers they’ve had in the past, they’ll have to pay more. If they can’t pay more, they’ll have to settle for less. At the same time, under the GOP/Ryan budget, billionaires continue to enjoy tax cuts that our nation simply can’t afford. 

It’s immoral to continually target seniors’ programs to foot the bill for an economic and fiscal crisis they did not create. Middle class Americans have already sacrificed more than their fair share with stagnant wages, plunging home values and vanishing savings. That’s why it’s simply wrong to target the average American to protect the wealthiest among us who continue to reap the benefits of decades of flawed fiscal policy.

The simple fact of the matter is that we don’t have to destroy Medicare to save it! The American people, of all ages, do not believe benefit cuts for the middle class and tax cuts for the wealthy are the right course for our nation.

Jim Centner, SOAR Director

Affordable Care Act, Preventive Services

The Road We've Traveled

Health Care Reform Timeline

2010
• $250 to every senior entering the donut hole (2010 only)
• Temporary high-risk insurance pool for early retirees
• Background checks on long-term care employees
• Nursing homes required to disclose ownership information
• Student loan programs to boost primary care workforce
Initiatives to root out waste, fraud, and abuse

2011
• Part D prescription drug discounts for seniors in donut hole (50 percent for brand-name drugs and 7 percent for generics)
• Free annual wellness visits and personalized prevention plans
• Preventive care deductibles and copayments eliminated
• Medicare Advantage plan reimbursements frozen
• Medicare Advantage plans prohibited from charging enrollees more than traditional Medicare for chemotherapy administration, skilled nursing home care, and other specialized services
• Creation of new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center
• Means-tested Part D premiums begin; Part B means-tested income thresholds frozen for 10 years
• 10% bonus payments to Medicare primary care practitioners
• New, voluntary long-term care insurance program (CLASS ACT). Implementation of this program is on hold.

2012
• Phase-down of Medicare Advantage plan subsidies
• Bonus payments to high-quality Medicare Advantage plans
• Incentives for hospitals to reduce preventable readmissions
• Data collection and reporting improvements to CMS’ Nursing Home Compare (NHC) Website

Elder Justice Coordinating Council required to make recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on the coordination of federal, state, local and private agencies’/entities’ activities relating to elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation

2013
• Pilot program to test bundled payments for a single episode of care
• Double-deduction for employer Part D subsidies eliminated
• Additional hospital insurance tax for high-income workers
• Nursing homes required to have effective compliance and ethics programs

2014 and beyond
• Part D donut hole phases down to complete closure by 2020
• Medicare Advantage plans must limit profits and expenses to 15 percent of Medicare payments
• Independent Payment Advisory Board established

                                                                Get the Word Out

Please share this important benefit information with a friend.

For additional copies of our handouts, please call 1-800-966-1935, or go online to www.patientsaware.org to forward this to a friend electronically.

Q&A on Health Care Reform

Q My out-of-pocket costs are expensive enough as it is. Why should I support cutting Medicare as a part of health care reform?

A Despite the rumors you may have heard, health care reform does not cut Medicare’s traditional, guaranteed benefits. Quite the opposite: the new law explicitly prohibits such benefit cuts. There are significant Medicare savings in the bill, but the money does not go to pay for covering the uninsured — it just looks that way because of our government’s budget and accounting rules.

In fact, the Medicare savings stay in the Medicare program — which is why the Part A Trust Fund will stay solvent at least seven years beyond what we expected before health care reform, and premiums and other out-of-pocket costs will grow more slowly in the future. Most of the savings were voluntarily agreed to by hospitals and other affected provider groups because they believe the additional insured patients and efficiencies included in the law will save them money. They contributed part of these savings back to the Medicare program by agreeing to slower rates of growth in future payments. It also phases down subsidies for private Medicare Advantage plans over time so that, on average, plans will receive payments comparable to what it would cost traditional Medicare to cover the same seniors.

Q Is there anything good for seniors in the law? What’s in it for me?

A Over time, the overwhelming majority of seniors in the United States will have lower out- of-pocket costs and better coverage as a result of the enactment of health care reform. The Medicare Part B premium for 2012 rose significantly less than projected to $99.90 per month. In addition, the Part B annual deductible decreased by $22 from $162 to $140.

The biggest immediate improvement for Medicare is in its drug coverage. The law phases out the donut hole in the Part D prescription drug program. The donut hole is the gap in coverage where seniors continue to pay full premiums, but also pay the cost of their drugs — a gap that does not exist in other health insurance programs. As a first step to help seniors struggling with the high cost of prescription drugs today, anyone who fell into the donut hole in 2010 received a $250 payment from the government. Currently, deep discounts in drug prices are being phased in to close the gap for seniors.

The Affordable Care Act also includes significant benefit improvements to keep seniors healthy by eliminating copayments and deductibles for preventive care and providing coverage for an annual wellness visit and personalized plan.

Finally, many of the payment reforms that will save money for Medicare are also designed to provide better quality health care for seniors. For example, hospitals will be encouraged to implement programs that prevent hospital-acquired infections and unnecessary readmissions, while doctors will receive bonus payments to improve access for seniors. In future years, the entire health care system will be redirected away from a model that pays based on the number of procedures and tests that are ordered and focuses more on rewarding providers based on the quality of the health care they provide.

Q I still don’t understand how you can cut Medicare by over $400 billion and not hurt seniors. Where does the money come from?

A Most of the savings come from reducing the annual increase in Medicare payments to hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies. They will continue to get larger payments every year; those payments will simply get smaller inflation increases in the future. Hospitals will also see gradual reductions in the payments they receive to help cover the cost of uncompensated care because they will have fewer uninsured patients to treat.

Additional savings come from bringing Medicare Advantage payments in line with traditional Medicare. Medicare Advantage is the privatized portion of Medicare. In order to entice private insurers to cover seniors, Congress has been subsidizing these plans — at a cost of $11 billion in 2009 alone. This raises the government’s costs and shortens the solvency of the Part A Trust Fund. Seniors are also subsidizing these plans through higher Part B premiums whether they are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan or not.

The new law does not cut the benefits Medicare Advantage plans offer — it slowly reduces reimbursements to the private insurance plans over time so they are closer to the amounts traditional Medicare would pay to cover the same seniors. The new law also includes significant new protections for those enrolled in the plans.

Finally, the new law strengthens efforts to reduce waste and fraud in the Medicare program, and puts in place the building blocks for significant new cost savings in the future through changes in our health care delivery system.

While the dollar value of these savings is a lot of money, it’s important to remember it represents just a small percentage of Medicare spending. The government is projected to spend about $6 trillion on Medicare during the next decade. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the savings in the new law will trim the growth of Medicare spending by about 2 percent a year.

Q So how does all this get paid for? I don’t want to leave the bill to my grandchildren.

A The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the combination of Medicare savings and increased revenues in the bill reduces the deficit, both over the first ten years as well as over the longer term. And this estimate uses extremely conservative cost estimates, as CBO economists refused to “score” as savings any part of the bill that could not be verified through their economic models. Many of the savings health experts expect from changes such as payment reforms and coordination of care models were not counted because CBO considered them “too speculative.” For this reason, many experts believe much greater savings will result from enactment of health care reform than is currently estimated.
Source: patientsaware.org

Part D Open Enrollment Ends Tomorrow

Open Enrollment Ends December 7

Remember: Medicare Open Enrollment ends earlier this year. You have until December
7 to make sure your health and drug coverage still meets your needs. That's tomorrow.

If you're happy with your current coverage, you don't need to do anything. But
make sure you understand any upcoming changes to your plan's costs or benefits.
If you want to change plans, or if you need help choosing the right plan, visit
www.medicare.gov and get personalized information about plans in your area.

Top Question of the day

Q. Where can the worlds smallest font be found?
A. The "Member Services" phone number on the back of an Anthem insurance card.

I wonder if the reason could be that they don't wish to field questions from their members?

A Stronger Voice

Republicans Uncoupled

Republicans have completely disconnected themselves from main street America. They voted to do away with the Medicare program and it has infuriated the vast majority of Americans.

Republicans voting for the Paul Ryan budget which eliminates the guaranteed medical insurance for anyone reaching the age of 65 while at the same time providing more tax breaks for the richest Americans have shot themselves in the foot and provided the proof of where their priorities and values are.

The Truth about Chris Chocola

"I very much support universal coverage. We actually have universal coverage now, it's called the emergency room."
Former Indiana congressman, Chris Chocola, President of the right wing crazy club for growth giving his opinion on universal healthcare. And this guy appeared on "Hard Ball" today trying to advise people who they should vote for? Give me a break.

Republicans have gone koo koo

The Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are trying to pass a budget which would privatize Medicare by giving seniors a voucher to buy their own medical insurance from insurance companies.
The Republicans have lost their minds.

GOP offers no death panels, just death from lack of care

By Leo W. Gerard

Republicans concocted death panels in an attempt to terrify Americans about health care reform, then propagated the lie because they wanted insurance corporations to profit from illness and injury unfettered.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed anyway, but now the GOP has announced that it plans to kill the reform, and Medicaid and Medicare too.

In one fell swoop, Republicans would foreclose on Americas’ long-held and cherished expectation that they’ll receive health coverage from their government in their old age, impoverishment or infirmity. For the elderly, poor, unemployed, disabled and juvenile who can’t afford insurance, the GOP offers no death panels, just death from lack of care.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, disclosed the GOP scheme to massacre Medicare and Medicaid. Instead of the government directly paying for medical services for the elderly and impoverished, Republicans would shift costs to states and the elderly.

Under their plan, instead of Medicare, the federal government would give seniors an unspecified amount of money toward the cost of premiums for private health insurance.

Also, instead of Medicaid, the GOP would give states some money to help pay for insurance for the poor, which includes nursing home care for the elderly. States and the elderly then would be stuck paying insurance costs above the amount provided by the federal government. Ryan and his GOP gang transfer medical costs to the elderly and impoverished to compensate for federal revenues lost when they slash income taxes levied on the rich and corporations by an additional 30 percent.

The GOP message to the rich and to corporations: keep your tax break and take another 30 percent. The GOP message to the middle class: pay more and lose your safety net.

The founders of the United States intended the government to serve the people not prostrate itself to the privileged. The signers of the Declaration of Independence and framers of the U.S. Constitution discarded the doctrine of the divine right of kings, the idea that monarchs derived their authority from God and thus were not subject to the will of the governed.

Instead, the founders and framers determined that rich and poor, men and monarchs are equal, that they possess inalienable rights and that the function of government is to secure those rights. Their vision of government is an organization operating with the consent of the people to protect the people. That is, to protect their inalienable rights, to protect them from inequities, to protect them from internal and external threats.

The GOP budget is a manifestation of a very different government philosophy. It subjugates the people to the divine right of corporations and the rich.

If the wealthy and corporations had paid their share of federal income taxes over the past 30 years since successive Republican presidents began cutting them, the federal deficit would be relative peanuts, if it existed at all. If the wealthy paid their share of social security taxes, the program would not face shortfalls after 2036. If corporations and the wealthy paid federal income taxes at the rates they did during the presidencies of Republicans Dwight D. Eisenhower or Richard Nixon, no one would be talking about killing off Medicaid and Medicare.

The nation’s largest corporation, General Electric, accumulated $26 billion in American profits over the past five years, while demanding $4.1 billion in “rebates” from the IRS and paying absolutely no federal income taxes last year. Two out of three U.S. corporations paid no income taxes from 1998 through 2005. The effective tax rate for the wealthy – the rate after loopholes and special deals - is nine points lower than that paid by the typical worker.

Still, Paul Ryan and his Republican crew insist that corporations and the rich are paying too much and demand that they pay an official rate of 25 percent instead of 35 percent. Because that will mean billions in lost revenue, the GOP slashes programs that protect the masses in the middle, education, health care reform, veterans benefits, public transportation, health and safety regulation, food and import inspection, Medicaid and Medicare. The GOP guts government for the people.

Because of those huge tax cuts for the rich and corporations, the Republican budget doesn’t even end the deficit until 2040. In fact, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office determined the tax cuts would increase the deficit’s share of the economy for the first 10 years of implementation. Under the GOP plan, public debt would rise to 70 percent of GDP by 2022. If the government maintained its current tax and spending levels, the debt would grow to 67 percent of GDP by 2022. 


The GOP budget shows Republicans believe corporations and the rich are super citizens with divine rights, while the vast majority of the nation’s citizens, the middle class, are lesser beings who are to be taxed but not protected by their government.

Many of these citizens – the elderly, the poor, the disabled – won’t be able to afford health insurance under the GOP scheme. They’ve paid taxes all their lives to support programs like Medicare. Now, the GOP intends to rip that out from under them, to take away the protection that they believed their government - government for the people - would provide.

The GOP announced this week that it believes new tax cuts for the rich and corporations are more important than Medicare and Medicaid, more important than the lives of vulnerable Americans who will die for lack of health insurance to pay for care.

Leo W. Gerard
 is the international president of United Steelworkers (USW).

There is Power in Unity

There's nothing more satisfying than to be able to help workers against an employer that has no regard for those who have made the company profit. This company in Elkhart, Indiana by the name of American Electronics Components has been in negotiations with USW Local 1056 for two or three months. The local union consists of nine ladies.

This company refuses to bargain after offering their workers a raise of only 18 cents over three years. Oh, they also offered to increase their workers medical insurance premiums 40% for an employee and an increase in premium of 60% for a family member. Some workers pay more than $200 a week for their health care.

This company should be ashamed to have the name "American" in its name.

Power to the workers, and shame on this company and its management.

Super Circus Begins Today

Today's House of Representatives promises to be a real circus as Republicans argue as to why the Health Care Reform law passed last year should be repealed.
Call your U.S. Representative and tell him/her to absolutely vote no and to keep the law in place. They are scheduled to vote tomorrow.

• Republicans want to take away discounts on prescription drugs that seniors get when they fall into the Medicare Part D donut hole.
• Republicans want the donut hole to never go away.
• Republicans want children to be denied medical insurance if they have a pre-existing condition.
• Republicans want to deny free annual check ups and preventive screenings for seniors.
• Republicans want your medical insurance company to be able to have annual and life time caps on how much they have to pay out for care.
• Republicans want seniors with chronic conditions to go to nursing homes rather than stay at home.
• Republicans want Medicare to go broke.
• Republicans want millions of people to be denied coverage.
• Republicans want to add $230 billion dollars to the deficit.
• Republicans want to take subsidies away from employers who wish to provide insurance to retirees.
• Republicans want your insurance premiums to be used to pay their CEO's as much as they want.
• Republicans want your children to be denied the ability to stay on your medical insurance until they reach the age of 26.
  

Today is the day for ACTION

Crazy people in Congress

Over the past several months, we have worked hard to help congress and President Obama finally pass legislation that reforms our health care system and we were successful.

Because of these reforms, today:

• Children can remain on their parents’ policy until they reach age 26.
• Insurance companies can no longer impose annual or lifetime limits on payment for care.
• You can’t be charged extra for obtaining emergency care at an emergency room that isn’t in the insurance company’s network of providers.
• Your coverage can’t be canceled when you get ill and no child can be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
• Insurance companies must spend a certain percentage of the premiums they collect on actual care.
• Retirees on Medicare who end up in the Medicare Part D donut hole will get a 50% discount on brand named drugs.
• Those on Medicare can get free screening for cancer and other diseases.

Anti working family and retiree forces were successful in becoming the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and today they become the majority.

Since right wingers only consider passing legislation that causes human pain, misery, suffering or death, one of the first things on their agenda is to take away these much needed benefits.

Fortunately, working families and retirees still have a majority in the U.S. Senate and we have a friend (President Obama) in the White House.

So, you must ask yourselves, why would Republicans try to overturn this health care reform legislation when they know full well that they’re wasting their time? The answer is plain and simple. They want to put on a show for their insurance company friends.