Print- Over 600 Retirees Urge Defeat of Medicare Lemon Bill
- Conference Medicare Bill at Glance
- AARP Endorsement of Medicare Bill Draws Fire
- Rx Drugs 33 Percent to 88 Percent Cheaper in Canada
- Rx Depot To Appeal Shutdown
- Unions Protest Edison Deal at Shareholder Meeting
- California Alliance Chartered
- Benefit Costs Consume Most Gains, Spark Strikes
- Public Supports Healthcare for All
- CMS Begins Public Reporting of Home Health Quality Measures
- Quote of Note: Medicare Prescription Drug Reimportation
- Web site of the Week: http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/kpzeeVM1W1NL/
OVER 600 RETIREES URGE DEFEAT OF MEDICARE LEMON BILL
More than 600 retirees from the Northeast braved heavy rains to urge defeat of the Medicare conference committee bill likely to be voted on in the next few days. The Nov. 19 Washington, D.C., rally, sponsored by the Alliance for Retired Americans, included nearly 100 AFT retirees from New York and the Washington area. They heard sharp criticism of the bill from a range of speakers, including Sen. minority leader Tom Daschle, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Edward Kennedy, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and U.S Rep. Charles Rangel, a locked-out member of the conference committee. Afterwards, retirees visited Senate offices handing out lemons—their view of the bill’s merits. The highly partisan bill would force beneficiaries to pay more for healthcare, turn Medicare over to private insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry, and prohibit Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices. Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Me.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) have both warned that the conferees’ bill would be the beginning of the end for Medicare. An estimated 61.1 percent of the funds in the bill allocated for purchasing prescriptions, or $139 billion, to the pharmaceutical industry to further bolster its already handsome profit margin, according to a recent Boston University study. A House vote is expected by the end of the week, with a Senate vote to follow within days. There’s still time for you, your family and friends to contact your U.S. representatives and senators. You can e-mail them via AFT’s Legislative Action Center http://capwiz.com/amft/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=2704816 or call the U.S. Capitol switchboard on AFT’s toll-free hotline at 1-800-839-5276.
CONFERENCE MEDICARE BILL AT GLANCE
| Monthly Premium | $35 |
| Deductible | $275 |
| Coverage | 75 percent of costs up to $2,200; 95 percent of costs over $3,600 |
| Coverage Gap | No coverage $2,201 to $3,600 |
| Savings to Average Senior | $124 per year (based on $1,000 in drug bills) |
| Seniors Likely to Lose Current Drug Coverage | 2.6 million; no additional support for public plans now covering retirees |
| Drug Prices | Prohibits Medicare from negotiating prices; effectively bans reimporting drugs from Canada; does little to improve access to generic drugs |
| HMO, PPO Overpayment | 26 percent |
| Spending Cap | 45 percent of general tax revenues; Congress then must cut benefits, reduce provider payments, raise premiums or raise payroll taxes (or any combination of these measures) |
| Medicare Privatization | Subsidizes private plans; provides beneficiaries only a "premium support" voucher; allows insurers to design plans to attract young and healthy retirees, thus raising premiums for those in traditional Medicare, encouraging them to move to private plans. |
AARP ENDORSEMENT OF MEDICARE BILL DRAWS FIRE
Although the AARP board of directors did not formally announce its support for the conference Medicare bill until Nov. 17, the giant senior organization had worked closely with conferees and the White House for weeks before. AARP top staff helped craft the final bill and turned out seniors for White House events in Washington and around the country. AARP president Bill Novelli cited several reasons for the group’s support. They included: drug coverage for the uninsured, measures to help keep prescription drugs affordable and establishing a prescription drug benefit in law. When push came to shove AARP couldn’t resist the $400 billion on the table—although admitting it fell far short of the funding a comprehensive benefit requires. The organization has announced it will spend $7 million on advertising to promote the bill. Both Senate minority leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Edward Kennedy expressed disappointment in the AARP leadership’s position. Kennedy predicted a member rebellion once the word got out. Daschle called the move ill-advised. Republican leaders termed AARP's endorsement the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. In backing the bill, AARP retreated from long-standing positions opposing means testing Medicare and requiring the traditional, fee-for-service plan to compete directly with private plans in 2010. Critics cited AARP’s close relationship with drug and insurance companies. Public Citizen reports that AARP received $162 million in insurance-related revenue in 2002, 25.4 percent of the organization's total operating revenues.
Rx DRUGS 33 PERCENT TO 88 PERCENT CHEAPER IN CANADA
Prices for 10 of the most popular drugs in Canada are 33 percent to 80 percent less than in the United States, according to a survey of drug prices on U.S. and Canadian pharmacies Web sites conducted by the Associated Press. The survey found that a three-month supply of the anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor -- the world's top-selling prescription drug -- is 37 percent cheaper in Canada. The antidepressant Paxil costs about 50 percent less in Canada; the arthritis drug Vioxx costs 58 percent less; and the antipsychotic Risperdal costs 80 percent less. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), cosponsor of a measure (HR 2427) that would allow the reimportation of U.S.-made prescription drugs from Canada and 25 other countries, estimated that government programs alone would save $40 billion importing drugs from Canada. However, Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) noted that reimported drugs from Canada are not the problem, adding that drugs from other countries might potentially be unsafe. “It is not an answer to this problem to say go buy drugs from Canada, which may be coming from Pakistan and India and China and all those countries we have health concerns about,” Breaux told the Associated Press. The conference bill on Medicare, which Breaux supports, effectively blocks reimportation of drugs from Canada.
Rx DEPOT TO APPEAL SHUTDOWN
Rx Depot, the Oklahoma-based storefront pharmacy chain, announced recently that it will appeal a preliminary injunction requiring the company to end operations. Rx Depot operates 85 storefront pharmacies in 26 states to assist U.S. consumers in purchasing prescription drugs from Canada. The court action came in response to a request by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which maintains that the company's operations are illegal because they violate a federal law that allows only prescription drug manufacturers to import medications into the United States.
UNIONS PROTEST EDISON DEAL AT SHAREHOLDER MEETING
Retirees and public employees represented by the AFT and other Florida unions were in New York on Nov. 12 to protest the purchase of the majority of Edison Schools Inc. by Liberty Partners, a money manager with a history of taking excessive risk whose sole client is the Florida state retirement system. The participants and retirees assailed the decision to invest as much as $182 million from the Florida Retirement System in Edison, which has been plagued by continuing contract terminations, lawsuits from dissatisfied investors, losses topping $350 million, scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission and red ink for nearly all of its existence. Scores of teachers, school employees, healthcare professionals, building service workers and other union members from New York rallied in support of Florida public employees outside the Edison shareholder meeting convened to approve the buyout. A delegation of active and retired workers covered by the Florida Retirement System traveled to New York to voice their dismay about the use of their retirement savings to buy a troubled company that privatizes public services. All are union members, representing the merged AFT-NEA affiliate in Florida, the Florida Education Association, as well as AFSCME, SEIU and the Teamsters.
More info: http://www.aft.org/press/2003/111203.html
CALIFORNIA ALLIANCE CHARTERED
More than 250 activists participated in the two-day founding convention of the California Alliance for Retired Americans in Los Angeles, Nov. 7-8. Alliance Secretary-Treasurer Ruben Burks, who presented the charter to newly elected President Nan Brasmer, praised the new Alliance for its hard work and dedication. Other officers chosen to lead the new affiliate include: Frank Sourza, treasurer; Shirley Bierly, secretary; and 18 vice presidents from all sections of the state, including AFT retiree leader Jacki Fox-Ruby, former president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. Delegates also heard from six members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), representing the 70,000 workers currently striking over health care issues. Delegates contributed $1,200 for the strike fund and, at the conclusion of the convention, more than 50 of them joined strikers on a nearby UFCW picket line. California is the Alliance's 15th chartered state affiliate.
BENEFIT COSTS CONSUME MOST GAINS, SPARK STRIKES
The bulk of compensation gains won by public sector employees now goes to pay the rising cost of healthcare, pensions and other benefits, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Oct. 31. For the year ending in September, wages and salaries for state and local government workers rose 2.3 percent. Benefit costs rose 6.7 percent over the same period. Two recent strikes involving nearly 80,000 workers both were sparked by skyrocketing healthcare costs. As many as 9,000 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union employed at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, the nation's third-largest public transit system, struck Oct. 14, and 70,000 United Food and Commercial Workers members employed by grocery store chains Albertsons, Kroger-owned Ralphs and Pavilions and Safeway-owned Vons at 859 locations in Southern California have been out since Oct. 11. Health insurance premium rates increased by an average of 14 percent in 2003, and as a result, many large employers have attempted to shift more of their healthcare costs to employees.
PUBLIC SUPPORTS HEALTHCARE FOR ALL
The public's growing unease with the current health care system has built support for a new approach that would mean care for all Americans and changes in laws governing prescription drugs, according to the ABC News-Washington Post poll taken in October. By 62 percent to 32 percent, Americans said they preferred a universal system that would provide coverage to everyone under a government program, as opposed to the current employer-based system. Eight in 10 said that it is more important to provide healthcare coverage for all Americans, even if it means higher taxes, than to hold down taxes but leave some people uncovered. A sizable majority, 70 percent, said it should be legal for Americans to buy prescription drugs outside the United States. One in eight respondents said they or someone in their home has done just that. The poll found that more than half of Americans, 54 percent, are dissatisfied with the overall quality of healthcare in the United States, while 44 percent are satisfied. That dissatisfaction is 10 percentage points higher than in 2000 and higher than it has been in the past decade when compared with earlier surveys. Six in 10 people surveyed say they are worried about being able to afford health insurance in the future; 53 percent of those insured say they are worried about losing their insurance as a result of losing their job. More than one in six said they have no insurance. The government says there were 43.6 million uninsured U.S. residents at some point during 2002, 15.2 percent of the population.
CMS BEGINS PUBLIC REPORTING OF HOME HEALTH QUALITY MEASURES
Beginning Nov. 3, consumers can access quality data about home health agencies across the country via the Home Health Compare Web site, the latest tool in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' reporting among federal health care providers. The home health quality initiative uses data already reported to CMS to compare agencies in individual states. The Web site lists 11 quality measures comparing home health agencies within states, including such things as improvements in a patient’s ability to dress, bathe and walk.
More info: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hhqi.
QUOTE OF NOTE: Medicare Prescription Drug Reimportation
"Obviously, the conferees are ignoring us and listening to the drug industry."
--U.S. Rep Jo Ann Emerson (R.-Mo.)
WEB SITE OF THE WEEK: www.unionvoice.org/ct/kpzeeVM1W1NL/
Contributors and sources: Bill Cunningham, Jane Meroney, Inside AFT, Alliance for Retired Americans Friday Alert, Working Families Alert, Medicare Rights Center, AARP Communications, Citizen Action New York, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Capital News Service, Newsweek, Public Citizen, Washington Post, The New York Times, Kaiser Health Policy Report. Frank Stella, editor; Renee Turner, design.
