Gray Panthers on the prowl
Men and women approaching retirement age should be recycled for public service work, and their companies should foot the bill. We can no longer afford to scrap-pile people.
-- maggie kuhn, founder
| Why Seniors Need Health Care Reform |
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Before Medicare, half of older Americans had no health insurance. Because they have higher numbers of health insurance claims than younger persons, elders were shunned by private health insurers. Medicare changed all that. By creating a universal insurance pool, Medicare allowed previously uninsurable seniors to share their risks, receiving affordable coverage where none existed previously. For 44 years, Medicare has provided health and financial stability for elders (and added benefits for the disabled under age 65 and for individuals with end-stage renal disease). Health care reform is our best chance to improve Medicare (a government program) and save it from crippling future cuts. Without reform, costs will be unaffordable for seniors and all Americans. We must make sure Medicare does not run out of money due to the high costs and poor outcomes of our current system. Reform is essential to cost control so we all can have health care. The case for elders is well argued in: Strengthening the Health Insurance System: How Health Insurance Reform Will Help America’s Older and Senior Women (www.Healthreform.GOV.) The truth is that there are no Medicare beneficiary cuts in proposed health reform legislation, but substantial improvements to Medicare in the three House committee bills (Tri-Committee HR 3200). Through health care reform and improvements to Medicare, like those proposed in HR 3200, Medicare recipients and other Americans without health insurance will have consumer protections that provide more safety and security. Health care reform is essential to drive down health care costs. A public plan provides competition, choice, and honesty while outlawing terrible insurance practices of refusing to sell insurance and discontinuing coverage for sick people. If health care costs continue at three-times the inflation rate, congress will be forced to come after Medicare and Social Security, plus Medicaid funding of long term care. The failure of health reform will be a disaster for seniors and for the millions of American families who are working in an increasingly uncertain and jobless recovery, with little hope of health insurance coverage. America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (House Bill- HR3200) strengthens Medicare by: expanding care coordination; providing rural provider pay improvements; eliminating doctor fee cuts; adding reimbursement for primary care and training; reducing and eventually eliminating the donut hole (which is when seniors have to pay 100% of drug costs after spending a set amount each year); eliminating cost sharing for invaluable preventive services; improving and increasing low-income subsidy programs; eliminating overpayments to private plans; increasing asset limits for low income assistance in Medicare and drug coverage; extending Medicare financing solvency by five years or more; and expanding authority to fight waste, fraud and abuse. A Health Care Emergency it is, as George Lakoff writes. Americans are suffering and impoverished because of “the failure of insurance company health care.” 47 million Americans have no insurance; another 40 million are uninsured part of the year. I want to live in a society where my children and grandchildren are not subject to the suffering, bankruptcy, or death due to lack of, or unaffordable, health care. I agree with President Obama who says, “Medicare is a sacred trust.” As a Healdsburg senior, founder of the Institute for Health & Aging at the University of California, San Francisco, and former board member of the Council on Aging, I applaud congresspersons Mike Thompson and Lynn Woolsey for their support of Medicare improvements in health reform. Seniors need it! Thompson fights for improved Medicare provider payments for rural areas, and Woolsey fights for the public option, competing with private insurers and controlling costs. The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and AARP joined 31 other national aging organizations in strong support of the Medicare improvements in HR 3200. Senators Feinstein and Boxer and Congresspersons Thompson and Woolsey must hear our support loud and clear. Carroll L. Estes 1427 Leslie Rd Healdsburg CA 95448 |
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