June 4, 2009

• Healthcare Reform Bill To Drop in June
• Kennedy Healthcare Legislation To Contain Individual, Employer Mandates, Long-Term Care Plan
• Baucus: Healthcare Bill Will Cover 95 Percent of Legal Residents
• Confidential Memo Outlines Republican Line of Attack on Healthcare Reform
• Uninsured Cost Average Family $1,017 in Healthcare Premiums
• Profits Soar, Competition Wanes in Health Insurance Industry
• Study Shows Employers' Anti-Union Behavior Intensifying
• President Obama Nominates Greenlee for Aging Post
• Save on Health Clubs with AFT+
• Quote of Note
• Web site of the Week: Travel Smart

HEALTHCARE REFORM BILL TO DROP IN JUNE
Congress returned from its Memorial Day recess June 1 with plans to begin examining proposals in earnest for what healthcare reform in America will look like. First up as Congress returns from a week-long recess: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), partially sidelined by cancer, convened his health committee's Democrats June 2 to begin weighing proposals to extend healthcare to all. Later in the week, the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee met behind closed doors to work on legislation to achieve the same goal. This week, health industry leaders were slated to deliver specific plans to the White House on cost-saving measures to save $2 trillion over 10 years. The list of cost-saving proposals is expected to include reducing hospital readmission rates, improving coordination of care, focusing on prevention and cutting administrative expenses. The healthcare reform bill is expected to include: creation of an insurance marketplace, or "exchange," where individuals and small employers could compare plans side by side and buy coverage and a requirement for insurers to take all comers, regardless of pre-existing conditions. Still on the table are taxes on employer-provided health benefits, although unions, including the AFT, strongly oppose the idea.

KENNEDY HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION TO CONTAIN INDIVIDUAL, EMPLOYER MANDATES, LONG-TERM CARE PLAN
Healthcare reform legislation being developed by Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee chair Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) would require everyone to have insurance coverage and employers to provide it, reform the private insurance market by mandating guaranteed issue and renewal of policies, and provide a public plan coverage option. It also would provide financial help to those needing coverage and establish a national health insurance exchange, according to a 12-page briefing paper on the legislation prepared by the committee dated May 21. The HELP committee, one of two Senate committees drafting healthcare reform bills, is set to unveil its proposal in early June, with markups likely to begin mid-month. The document says committee legislation would be based on assuring reliable, high-quality and affordable health insurance for all Americans; improving value by creating a higher quality, more efficient delivery system; building a new framework to enhance prevention and wellness; creating a durable structure of long-term supports and services for seriously disabled Americans; eliminating fraud and abuse; and establishing shared responsibility and paying appropriately and fairly for reform. Those satisfied with their current coverage should be able to keep it, and coverage should be made available to the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans. A new, voluntary national insurance program for individuals with disabilities and chronic illnesses also would be established by the legislation, providing these individuals with a cash benefit for medical expenses, according to the document. To qualify for benefits, individuals must have contributed monthly premiums through a voluntary payroll deduction for at least five years. Tiered benefits ($50-$100 per day) would be payable to those unable to perform two or more Activities of Daily Living or with the equivalent cognitive impairment. The program would be self-funded through participant premiums and would be a primary payer to Medicaid. Premiums would be limited to no more than $65 per month. Those below the poverty line and younger participants would pay less than others.

BAUCUS: HEALTHCARE BILL WILL COVER 95 PERCENT OF LEGAL RESIDENTS
Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said May 21 that Congress's healthcare overhaul plan would cover 94 percent to 96 percent of the population but not undocumented immigrants. According to an analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies and the U.S. Census Bureau, undocumented immigrants make up between 15 percent and 22 percent of the estimated 47 million U.S. residents without health coverage. Baucus said that due to the explosive nature of the issue, undocumented workers would have to rely on charity care if they could not pay their medical expenses. The Senate Finance Committee is considering a number of options on the tax exemption for employer health benefits, including: capping the amount of health benefits that can qualify for an exemption; taxing benefits for higher-income residents; and a combination of the two previous options, in which tax-exempt benefits are capped only for higher-income residents. The Obama administration is opposed to taxing benefits but says that the option is still open. The AFL-CIO and AFT remain staunchly opposed.

CONFIDENTIAL MEMO OUTLINES REPUBLICAN LINE OF ATTACK ON HEALTHCARE REFORM
GOP pollster and wordsmith Frank Luntz has authored a new messaging memo defining the Republican rhetoric on healthcare reform. Titled "The Language of Healthcare 2009," it lays out the argument for 'stopping the Washington takeover' of healthcare." But it is really aimed at stopping healthcare reform. Luntz warns that "if the dynamic becomes ‘President Obama is on the side of reform and Republicans are against it,' then the battle is lost." He urges Republicans to "humanize [their] approach," but argue that healthcare reform "will result in delayed and potentially even denied treatment, procedures and/or medications...Acknowledge the crisis [but ask your constituents] would you rather...pay the costs you pay today for the quality of care you currently receive, [or] pay less for your care, but potentially have to wait weeks for tests and months for treatments you need." In other words, say there is a crisis but then argue that healthcare reform would lead to "the government setting standards of care," government "rationing care," and would "put the Washington bureaucrats in charge of healthcare...This plays into more favorable Republican territory by protecting individual care while downplays the need for a comprehensive national plan," the memo states. Readers are also instructed to link Obama's moderate hybrid approach to reform (i.e., building on the current private/public system of delivering healthcare) with "denial horror stories from Canada & Co." Luntz urges Republican lawmakers to argue that Republicans will provide "more access to more treatments and more doctors...with less interference from insurance companies and Washington politicians and special interests.'' The administration's task is to define healthcare reform as a way to lower healthcare costs through competition, expand coverage to all Americans and give everyone a choice of healthcare providers and health insurers.

UNINSURED COST AVERAGE FAMILY $1,017 IN HEALTHCARE PREMIUMS
The average U.S. family and their employers paid an additional $1,017 in healthcare premiums in 2008 to pay for care of the uninsured, according to a study released on May 28 by Families USA. Researchers found that the uninsured received $116 billion in healthcare from hospitals, physicians and other providers in 2008 and paid 37 percent of that amount. Government programs and charities covered an additional 26 percent, which left another 37 percent, or about $43 billion, unpaid. The study then estimated how those costs when spread across the insured through higher premiums and found that the additional amount paid under private coverage for single individuals was about $370 per year and $1,017 for the average family.

PROFITS SOAR, COMPETITION WANES IN HEALTH INSURANCE INDUSTRY
According to the AFL-CIO blog, profits at 10 of the country's largest publicly traded health insurance companies rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007, while consumers paid more for less coverage. One of the major reasons, according to a study by the group "Healthcare for America Now," is the growing lack of competition in the private health insurance industry, which has led to near-monopoly conditions in many markets. The report says such conditions warrant a Justice Department investigation, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) says that it provides compelling evidence of the need for a public health insurance plan option as part of the healthcare reform initiative President Obama and Congress are developing.

STUDY SHOWS EMPLOYERS' ANTI-UNION BEHAVIOR INTENSIFYING
A new study by Cornell University professor Kate Bronfenbrenner provides a sobering and persuasive argument for the Employee Free Choice Act. Her research shows that not only do employers engage in punitive campaigns of intimidation, but their tactics are getting worse. Director of labor education research at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Bronfenbrenner analyzed employer behavior in union representation elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) between 1999 and 2003. She found that employers are more than twice as likely to use 10 or more tactics—including threats of and actual firings—in their campaigns to thwart workers' organizing efforts as they were in the previous 15 years. According to Bronfenbrenner, in NLRB election campaigns, it is standard practice for workers to be subjected by corporations to threats, interrogation, harassment, surveillance and retaliation for union activity.

• 63 percent interrogate workers in one-on-one meetings with supervisors about support for the union;
• 54 percent threaten workers in such meetings;
• 57 percent threaten to close the work site;
• 47 percent threaten to cut wages and benefits; and
• 34 percent fire workers.

Even when workers succeed in forming a union, 52 percent are still without a contract a year after they win the election, and 37 percent remain without a contract two years after the election. Private sector campaigns differ markedly from public sector ones, where 37 percent of workers belong to unions. Survey data from the public sector describe an atmosphere in which workers may organize relatively free from the kind of coercion, intimidation and retaliation that so taints the election process in the private sector. Help end these abuses by adding your name to the AFL-CIO petition in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act.

PRESIDENT OBAMA NOMINATES GREENLEE FOR AGING POST
On May 4, 2009, President Obama nominated Kathy Greenlee as Assistant Secretary for Aging. Greenlee currently serves as Secretary of Aging for the state of Kansas, a position she has held since January 2006. Her department oversees the state's Older Americans Act programs, the distribution of Medicaid long-term care payments and regulation of nursing home licensure and survey processes. From 2004-2006, Greenlee served as Long-Term Care Ombudsman in Kansas, and prior to that, was the state's Assistant Secretary of Aging. From 1999-2002, she served as general counsel at the Kansas Insurance Department. During her tenure there, she led the team of regulators who evaluated the proposed sale of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Kansas, and oversaw the Senior Health Insurance Counseling for Kansas program. Greenlee also served as chief of staff and chief of operations for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. She is a graduate of the University of Kansas with degrees in business administration and law.

SAVE ON HEALTH CLUBS WITH AFT+
To help you and your family take better care of yourselves and save money on monthly health club fees, try the AFT+ health club discount program. Program features include:

• Prenegotiated 20 percent to 60 percent discounts on monthly fees at more than 1,500 health clubs nationwide.
• Month-to-month membership-your membership may be cancelled at any time.
• Ability to freeze membership and activate it at a later date.
• Ability to transfer membership among participating health clubs for a $10 transfer fee.

 Call 888/294-1500 or visit www.unionplus.org/healthclubs.

QUOTE OF NOTE
"The arguments against the Democrats' healthcare plan must center on politicians, bureaucrats, and Washington...not the free market, tax incentives, or competition. Stop talking economic theory and start personalizing the impact of a government takeover of healthcare. They don't want to hear that you're opposed to government healthcare because it's too expensive (any help from the government to lower costs will be embraced) or because it's anti-competitive (they don't know about or care about current limits to competition). But they are deathly afraid that a government takeover will lower their quality of care-so they are extremely receptive to the anti-Washington approach."

Frank Luntz, Republican pollster
Confidential Memo on Healthcare Reform
Politico, May 6, 2009

WEB SITE OF THE WEEK:
http://seniorliving.about.com/od/travelsmart/Travel_Smart.htm

Travel can be one of life's great pleasures at any age, whether you're a baby boomer or a senior. Here's where to look for information on travel for older adults, including whether you're going alone or with a group, taking a well worn path or the road less travelled. But knowing how to travel safely, affordably and efficiently is just as important as deciding where you want to go. To learn more, check out AFT+ Member Benefits Travel discounts.