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AARP
unveils Legislative priorities for new
Congress, including U.S. Health Care
overhaul
[Jan 07, 2009]
AARP officials on Tuesday
released a list of legislative priorities
for health care for the 111th Congress as
part of a "characteristically sweeping
agenda that focuses on the recession and on
health care reform,"
The Hill reports.
Among the priorities, AARP, which has more
than 40 million members ages 50 and older,
seeks as much as $50 billion in additional
federal Medicaid funds for states as part of
an economic stimulus package.
AARP also wants lawmakers to prohibit states
that take the additional Medicaid funds from
reducing long-term care services.
In addition, AARP seeks provisions in the
stimulus package that would extend
unemployment benefits, maintain nutrition
programs, allocate as much as $50 billion to
develop a national electronic health record
system and encourage more participation in
the nursing field.
AARP also seeks a number of Medicare
reforms, such as a system that bases
reimbursements to health care providers on
quality, a reduction or elimination of the
asset test for prescription drug benefit
subsidies and a proposal to allow the
federal government to negotiate directly
with pharmaceutical companies on prices for
medications (Young,
The Hill,
1/6).
Other priorities for AARP include efforts to
reduce health care costs and improve
quality; encourage increased use of
comparative effectiveness research on
medications and medical devices; promote
chronic care coordination, disease
management and prevention initiatives; and
expand Medicaid and SCHIP (Carey,
CQ HealthBeat, 1/6).
Comments
AARP CEO Bill Novelli said, "This is not the
time for business as usual," adding, "It is
time to demonstrate bold leadership, to take
our agenda to the people and our nation's
leaders, to demand change and to work hard
to bring about that change" (The
Hill,
1/6).
Novelli cited the need for health care
reform to address the increased cost of
Medicare and other entitlement programs.
"The way to deal with entitlements is to
first of all deal with health care," he said
(Kivlan,
CongressDaily,
1/6).
John Rother, executive vice president for
policy and strategy at ARRP, added, "The
economic crisis is promoting the need for
health reform because more people are at
risk."
Nancy LeaMond, executive vice president for
social impact at AARP and director of
Divided We Fail, said, "The
economy's effect on people who are in the
work force, near-retirees, and retirees is
drastic; the time for solutions is now" (The
Hill,
1/6).
Survey
In related news, AARP on Tuesday released a
survey that examined the effect of the
current economic recession on the health
care decisions of U.S. adults. The survey,
conducted in December 2008, included
responses from 1,097 adults ages 45 and
older.
According to the survey, 55% of adults have
concerns about their ability to pay their
health care bills over the next year.
In addition, more than 80% of adults said
that they strongly or somewhat agree that
the federal government should provide
financial assistance to residents who lose
their jobs to allow them to maintain their
health insurance or purchase affordable
coverage during the recession, the survey
found (CQ HealthBeat,
1/6).
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