Friday Alert
Friday, February 5, 2010(Alliance for Retired Americans)
President's Budget Includes $250
Stimulus Payment for Social Security Recipients
President Obama's
Fiscal Year 2011 budget proposes a $250 payment
to Social Security recipients. The relief
would come at a time when Social Security
beneficiaries will not be receiving a normal
cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) because of a
formula that forbids adjustments during times
of negative inflation. "Without a COLA,
far too many of America's seniors will find it
even more difficult to purchase basic
necessities, heat their homes and pay for their
medications," said Barbara J.
Easterling, President of the
Alliance. "We urge Congress to similarly
work to provide much-needed economic relief to
older Americans who are struggling to make ends
meet during these difficult times," she
continued. "The President's budget
proposal will provide Social Security
beneficiaries with the equivalent of a 2%
increase in benefits and will help greatly to
bolster their financial security."
As expected, the budget also calls for a Bipartisan Fiscal Commission that will address the growth of entitlement spending, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. A plan to freeze non-security discretionary spending for three years to address the budget deficit would not affect those programs. "We must watch this fiscal commission development carefully, so that the budget is not balanced on the backs of seniors," said Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance. Other items in the budget are aimed at supporting seniors. These include $3.3 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP); funds to reduce Social Security backlogs; and money to help families care for aging relatives at home. Retirement security initiatives include establishing automatic workplace IRAs, with employees being able to "opt-out" if they choose; doubling the credit for small employers starting a retirement plan; and providing a 50-percent match on the retirement savings of families that earn less than $85,000.
Recharging Health Care
Reform
House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA), Majority Leader
Harry Reid (D-NV), and
President Obama all took steps this past week
towards a revival of the floundering health
care reform initiative. Pelosi announced
her plan to schedule a vote next week on a
smaller bill, which would focus on a
fifty-year-old exemption of health insurance
companies from anti-trust laws. This vote is an
integral part of her strategy to tackle items
that would not normally be included in a more
expansive bill. This smaller bill would
bear similarities to a section of the House
health care bill which proposed ending the
exemption for health and medical malpractice
insurers, while granting the government more
power to regulate anti-trust laws.
Pelosi's decision came in the midst of a debate
on the use of reconciliation, a procedural
maneuver that would allow the Senate to amend
and pass the health care bill with only 51
votes. According to Reid, a
reconciliation bill would first have to be
approved by the House, where revenue measures
must originate. A vote in the Senate
would then follow. President Obama called
on Republicans to support the reform
bill. "My hope is…that they accept that
invitation and that they work with us together
over the next several weeks to get it done," he
said.
Senate Passes Temporary Fix to
Address Doctors' Medicare Reimbursement
Rates
Last Thursday, the Senate
passed pay-as-you-go legislation to mandate
Congress to pay for its future spending without
adding to the deficit. At the same time,
they exempted $82 billion from this requirement
in order to prevent reductions to doctors'
Medicare reimbursement rates. Unless
Congress authorizes this spending, the doctors
who care for Medicare patients will find that
their reimbursements will be cut by 21% in
March - leaving seniors to pay the price with
fewer available doctors and less access to the
care they deserve. The House would also
have to pass the temporary fix in order for it
to take effect. Even then, the possible
temporary fix would only be a five-year patch,
so the American Medical Association (AMA) has
launched a national campaign to push for a
permanent resolution. That cost is
estimated at $200 billion, and the AMA and the
Alliance have been strongly urging Congress to
pass it. "A permanent solution will stop
these band-aid fixes, curb physician costs, and
protect seniors' access to care," said
Ruben Burks,
Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance. "And
that should be a top priority for
Congress."
Solve Deficit by Privatizing
Medicare and Social Security?
Texas
Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling
suggested in an interview Monday that the only
way to curb the budget deficit is by cutting
entitlement programs such as Social Security
and Medicare. He said, "I'm willing to
say that part of the social contract will need
to be re-engineered." It was a flashback
to the Bush-era where schemes to privatize
Social Security and cut benefits were widely
rejected by seniors and other Americans.
Click here to watch the interview on the
subject: http://bit.ly/b0j3iY.
Community-Based Scholarships
Available for Las Vegas
Convention
Reminder: the Alliance
has created a Community-Based Scholarship
Program as part of an organization-wide effort
to increase access to national conferences and
conventions for our community-based
members. The program is being introduced
in conjunction with this year's Alliance
National Convention, April 5-8 in Las
Vegas. Scholarships include: Waived
conference and convention registration fees; up
to $1,000 to pay for travel to and from the
convention; lodging while attending the
conference; and $45 per diem. Scholarship
recipients must be individual members in good
standing with the national Alliance;
community-based members (not a member of a
union that has affiliated nationally with the
Alliance); and live more than 100 miles away
from the conference/convention site. In
total, 10 scholarships will be awarded.
Applications must be received by February 15,
2010. For more information on the
scholarships and the convention overall, please
go to http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/m1qRxfs18a_K.
Did You Know...
Spending
on health care in 2008 made up 17 percent of
the U.S. gross domestic product, up from just 6
percent in 1965. And national health care
spending is expected to account for 25 percent
of GDP by 2025 (Center for American
Progress).