• AFT 2006-08 Focus: Politics, Organizing, Activism
• Senior Vote Will Be Crucial in November
• Three Key Questions To Ask Your Candidates
• Deciding about Medicare Part D?
• 140 NYSUT Retiree Leaders Gear Up To Walk the Walk
• New Report Documents Medicare Windfall for Insurers, Drug Companies
• Medicare Drug Premiums Will Rise for Many
• Rx Drug Ad Spending Up by 9 Percent in
  First Half of 2006
• Positive Thinking Leads to Longer Life
• AFT Consumer Alert on Credit Card Offer
• Apply Now for the 2007 Union Plus Scholarship
• Quote of Note
• Web site of the Week: Voter Rights

AFT 2006-08 FOCUS: POLITICS,
ORGANIZING, ACTIVISM
It was back to basics at the AFT executive council and program and policy council (PPC) meetings Oct. 2-5 in Washington, D.C. AFT president Edward J. McElroy set the tone, telling PPC members that the AFT needs to maintain its focus on challenging candidates for office to explain what they will do to promote the union's priorities on healthcare, pensions, education and the whole range of public services. Politics is at the heart of all those issues, and by electing better lawmakers, the work of the union and its members becomes that much easier. McElroy focused specifically on retirement security and the need for AFT leaders to speak out about the outrageous attacks on private sector pensions, even if members aren’t affected right now.

AFL-CIO political director Karen Ackerman told the group "Turnout WILL make the difference." She added "Economic growth is not reaching working families. Despite high productivity, family income is falling; real wages are down." Ackerman outlined the AFL-CIO's ambitious Labor 2006 campaign, already well under way, that is targeting 13.4 million active and retired union members, including union households and other supporters, in more than 30 battleground states.

Promoting greater involvement in politics is part of the AFT's Count Me In campaign to boost member activism, which was kicked off at the AFT convention this summer. The idea, McElroy said, "is to change [members'] way of viewing what we are, who we are and what we do. We need to bring people in because they are the union." The AFT's efforts to truly embed a "culture of organizing" throughout the union will require a major shift in how affiliates conduct their day-to-day business, so that every activity becomes a way to involve and mobilize members and potential members. AFT secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour, who chairs the organizing committee, noted that everything the union does—from negotiating contracts to new organizing to political action—must zero in on "moving nonmembers to members, members to activists, and activists to leaders." Specifically, this means moving from the "service model" to an "organizing model" that involves members in every aspect of the union's work, from resolving grievances to delivering professional development, said AFT vice president and organizing committee member David Hecker, who outlined the union's organizing work plan for the next two years.

SENIOR VOTE WILL BE CRUCIAL IN NOVEMBER
Older Americans are perhaps the most coveted voting block by candidates of both parties, and a new report by Democracy Corps shows just how critical the senior vote is. According to the research, two-thirds of seniors are expected to turn out at the polls this November. Seniors are also significantly more likely to say they are interested in this year's election, with nearly seven in 10 rating their interest as level 10 on a 1-10 scale, compared with 58 percent of the overall electorate. Less than a quarter of those surveyed have positive feelings about Congress. Although seniors favored President Bush by a 5-point margin in the last presidential election, the Democracy Corps report found the Democrats leading the senior vote by 4 points, 45 percent to 41 percent.

THREE KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CANDIDATES
In this year's elections for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, there are three key questions about Social Security and Medicare you need to ask:

1. What is his/her position on carving out private accounts from Social Security?
2. Does he/she support allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for prescription drugs?
3. Will he/she support a single national drug plan for all people with Medicare as an option under Part D?

The pro-retiree answer to questions 2 and 3 is Yes. The pro-retiree answer to question 1 is No. The reasons? The Veterans Administration saves about 40 percent on prescription drugs by negotiating prices. Medicare, with a much larger user base, could save at least as much. These funds could reduce or eliminate the doughnut hole—more than $2,700 per beneficiary in 2007—and improve benefits. A single national Medicare plan would allow everyone in the country to enjoy the same benefits and take out much of the confusion in the current Part D system. Private accounts in Social Security would drain funds needed to pay benefits and reduce guaranteed benefits for the vast majority of Americans alive today and for everyone in generations to come.

DECIDING ABOUT MEDICARE PART D?
The enrollment period for the second year of the Medicare prescription drug program (known as Part D) opens on Nov. 15 and ends Dec.31, 2006. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) annual handbook Medicare and You, to be mailed in October to all Medicare beneficiaries, will include next year's plan options by state. If you have just become eligible for Medicare or are thinking about switching Part D coverage, visit MedicareInteractive, a special Web site created by the Medicare Rights Center and sponsored by the AFT and NYSUT. If you are Medicare eligible and already have an employer- or state-provided retiree drug plan as good as or better than the standard Part D coverage, check with your plan's benefits administrator or appropriate state agency to verify that you will have continuing coverage. If you do, you don't have to do anything. To compare drug plans in your area, go to http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/Wd1GNg611quW/medicare.

140 NYSUT RETIREE LEADERS GEAR UP
TO WALK THE WALK
More than 140 NYSUT retiree leaders met in Albany Oct. 11-12 for the group's annual joint Election District meeting. Chaired by at-large director Ruth Dworkin, one of four retiree members of NYSUT's executive board, the activists focused on the upcoming elections, the Medicare drug program and political action. NYSUT president Richard Iannuzzi and second vice president Kathleen Donahue praised the participants for their tremendous record of political activism and encouraged them to bring that same energy to the looming election and legislative battles ahead. Senior legislative representative Patrick Lyons honed in on the nationwide attack on public pensions and NYSUT's efforts to elect pro-education and pro-public sector candidates. Medicare Rights Center staffer Joshua Klein focused on the second year of the prescription drug benefit. AFT retiree director Frank Stella outlined the AFT’s political action efforts nationwide and the national retiree program’s retiree-to-retiree post card campaign. The activists also drafted resolutions for NYSUT’s spring Representative Assembly. Topics included improved pension benefits and COLA, a tax credit for long-term care insurance premiums, opposition to Social Security privatization, reform of the Medicare prescription drug benefit, and tighter regulation of assisted living facilities.

NEW REPORT DOCUMENTS MEDICARE WINDFALL FOR INSURERS, DRUG COMPANIES
The so-called Medicare Modernization Act has been a major disappointment for consumers and taxpayers, but a windfall for private insurance and drug companies, according to a new report from Families USA, a health advocacy group. "Medicare Privatization: Windfall for the Special Interests" chronicles the failures of the MMA in three key areas: Medicare Advantage overpayments, subsidies to regional PPOs, and drug prices. Among the key findings:

• Under the MMA, Medicare has been significantly overpaying private plans under Medicare Advantage. In 2005, Medicare overpaid private plans by at least 7 percent per beneficiary, costing taxpayers $2.7 billion. In 2006, overpayment reached 11 percent per beneficiary, costing taxpayers $4.6 billion. 
• Under the MMA, Congress set aside $10 billion for an unnecessary subsidy (or "stabilization fund") to regional PPOs. This year, however, 88 percent of beneficiaries have access to a regional PPO, before the so-called stabilization fund was even tapped—no subsidy was necessary. Medicare Part D drug prices are substantially higher than the prices obtained by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which negotiates prices on behalf of consumers. For all of the top 20 drugs prescribed to seniors, the lowest price charged by any Part D plan was higher than the lowest price secured by the VA. Yet Congress refused to let Medicare negotiate directly with the drug companies, as the VA does.

MEDICARE DRUG PREMIUMS WILL RISE FOR MANY
Two weeks after the Bush administration announced that Medicare prescription premiums would stay about the same next year, a new analysis by congressional Democrats indicates that for a majority of middle-class seniors, rates will jump 13 percent, well above the overall inflation rate. Several independent experts said that seniors using the most popular type of Medicare prescription coverage, a stand-alone drug plan, will face significant premium increases next year unless they switch to more economical plans that often come with more restrictions. "If you look at the plans where most seniors are now enrolled, many are increasing premiums," said Tricia Neuman, who oversees Medicare policy for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. "What was the best deal last year may not be the best deal next year," said James Firman, president of the National Council on Aging. For example, monthly premiums for Humana's popular low-price plan will rise from an average of about $10 to around $15. Another Humana offering, the PDP Complete plan, this year covered brand-name drugs in the so-called doughnut hole, a coverage gap Congress and the administration built into the benefit to save money. Next year, that plan will not cover brand-name drugs in the doughnut hole. And monthly premiums will rise from an average of about $58 to about $80. "Seniors are going to have to constantly reassess their coverage relative to their own health status and relative to what choices are being offered in the marketplace," said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health, a consulting firm.

Rx DRUG AD SPENDING UP BY 9 PERCENT IN FIRST HALF OF 2006
Drug companies increased spending on advertisements by 9 percent in the first half of 2006, an indication that they no longer feel constrained by criticism, after the September 2004 withdrawal of the COX-2 inhibitor Vioxx, that their splashy campaigns minimized medicines' risks. According to TNS Media Intelligence, pharmaceutical companies spent $2.46 billion in the first half of 2006, compared with $2.26 billion a year earlier, as companies increased spending on magazine ads and ads to promote their images and disease management programs. Magazine ads accounted for 34 percent of pharmaceutical company spending on advertisements, compared with 29 percent a year earlier; and television ads accounted for 59 percent, compared with 64 percent a year earlier. TNS research director Jon Swallen said that pharmaceutical companies increased spending on magazine ads because such ads cause fewer problems with compliance with new voluntary guidelines recently adopted by the industry.

POSITIVE THINKING LEADS TO LONGER LIFE
Accenting the positive can lead to a longer life, according to a new study of aging by Yale and Harvard researchers. Led by Dr. Becca Levy of Yale, the Ohio Longitudinal Study of Aging and Retirement included 1,157 people, nearly every resident of Oxford, Ohio, who was 50 or older and was not suffering from dementia. The nearly two-decade-long study found that people who had more positive views about aging were healthier over time. They lived an average of 7.6 years longer than those of a similar age who did not hold such views, and even suffered less hearing loss three years into the study. The result persisted when the investigators took into account the participants’ health at the start of the study, as well as their age, gender and socioeconomic status.

AFT CONSUMER ALERT ON CREDIT CARD OFFER
The AFT has learned of a "credit" offer recently mailed to some AFT members from Union Workers Credit Services, whose Web site implies that the company is associated with the AFT and other international unions. It is not. The AFT's general counsel has written to this company and demanded that it remove our name from its Web site. Beware of any credit card offer that requires you to pay a fee before you can learn the details of the offer. And be sure that any credit card solicitation is from a bank that actually issues regular credit cards and not from a company, such as Union Workers Credit Services, that provides a card that can be used only to order merchandise from a catalog. Please spread the word so fellow retirees are protected from this misrepresentation of an AFT program.

APPLY NOW FOR THE 2007 UNION PLUS SCHOLARSHIP
Applications for the 2007 Union Plus Scholarship program are now available. Scholarship awards range from $500 to $3,000. The deadline for the 2007 awards is January 31, 2007. This year, the children of 10 AFT families won scholarship awards. Since 1992, the Union Plus Scholarship has awarded more than $2 million to students of working families who want to begin or continue their higher education. The dependent children and grandchildren of all members—both working and retired—are eligible to apply. For more information about the scholarship and to download an application, visit http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/I11GNg611quu/unionplus.

QUOTE OF NOTE
"The government now pays Medicare-sponsored HMOs and other private plans 11 percent more than would be spent in the traditional fee-for-service program. If the private sector is so efficient, why do we have to pay it more to do the job?" 

U.S. Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark

WEB SITE OF THE WEEK: Voter Rights
The Alliance for Retired Americans Web site "Voter Rights" section includes guidelines for volunteering to be a poll watcher on Election Day, as well as rules for voting in Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.