Senior Organizations’ Statement of Principles about Health Care Reform
Protecting Medicare
Medicare is our nation’s promise that no one will be left to struggle with medical bills after a lifetime of hard work. Medicare works for seniors, and we want to keep it that way.
We are dedicated to fighting to make sure your Medicare benefits are there when you need them. We stand with you to make sure that you can choose the doctors you need, and that when your doctor says you need medical care, you’re covered. Today we’re continuing that fight by ensuring that health care reform protects and strengthens Medicare and the guaranteed benefits you’ve been promised.
We know that health care costs are skyrocketing, including the cost of Medicare. So, how do we stem this inflation while maintaining the Medicare benefits seniors depend on? By finding savings in three areas: First, we reduce excessive payments to some Medicare Advantage private insurance plans. On average these Medicare Advantage plans get paid 14% more than traditional Medicare for perks that only some seniors receive and without showing any better medical results. Second, many hospitals and drug companies have agreed as part of health care reform to lower future costs for their services. Third, we can eliminate waste and fraud in the system. These steps are projected to slow the expected cost increase in the Medicare program by 3% over ten years.
So, how will these steps affect people with Medicare? The most important thing to remember is health care reform will not cut any guaranteed Medicare services such as doctor visits, hospital care, or rehabilitation services. Even the private insurers offering Medicare Advantage plans cannot cut back on these guaranteed Medicare benefits. The second thing to know is that the savings achieved in Medicare will make the program stronger, by adding extra years to Medicare’s fiscal health and by ensuring doctors are paid fairly to keep them in the program.
Health reform is also taking active steps to improve Medicare coverage and services to seniors. Some of the proposals include paying bonuses to primary care doctors to ensure there is always a provider for you, improving coordination and quality of care to reduce medical errors and confusion for those with chronic conditions, improving drug coverage to close the donut hole, reducing cost sharing for Medicare-covered preventive services, providing protections to ensure that spouses of those needing Medicaid home care services are not forced to spend down into poverty, and creating better information and new options for home and community long term care.
We are fighting to eliminate waste and overpayments in the program, so your money goes to pay for necessary care, not insurance company subsidies or inflated profits. We want to ensure the long-term security of Medicare so it remains there for you and your children and grandchildren when they’re ready to retire.
Why Seniors Need Health Care Reform Now
To Keep Doctors in the System: If Congress does not act on health care this year, Medicare payments to doctors will be cut by 21 percent and many will stop serving Medicare beneficiaries.
To Reduce Costs and Out-of-Pocket Spending: Medicare premiums doubled over the past 8 years and will double again in the next 8 years if we don’t slow the rate of spending growth. Health reform can do this by reducing fraud and abuse, reducing wasteful spending, and by limiting subsidies to insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and trimming future increases to hospitals and rehab providers.
To Keep Medicare Strong for the Future: Congress needs to take steps to ensure that Medicare will be there when the baby boomers retire. Failure to begin addressing the problem this year will lead to more cuts later on.
We’re fighting to prevent waste from driving up your health care costs and threatening Medicare’s long-term security by:
We’ve made it clear to President Obama and to congress that we will fight with the strength of our entire membership to protect your benefits and block any proposals that eliminate guaranteed benefits, raise out of pocket costs or reduce access to care.
What’s Good About Health Care Reform for Seniors
Health care reform will protect the very things we’ve been fighting for and you’ve been counting on from Medicare – the benefits you’ve been promised, a choice of doctor and prescription drugs at a price you can afford.
Specifically, current health care reform proposals will protect what works in Medicare and begin to fix what doesn’t by:
Supporting Organizations
AARP
AFSCME Retirees
Alliance for Retired Americans
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
American Federation of Teachers Program on Retirement and Retirees
American Public Health Association
Asociación Nacional Pro Personas Mayores (National Association For Hispanic Elderly)
Association for Gerontology and Human Development in Historically Black Colleges
Association of Jewish Aging Services of North America
B’Nai B’rith International
The Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc.
Easter Seals
Families USA
National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs
National Asian Pacific Center On Aging
National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers
National Association of State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs
National Caucus and Center on Black Aged, Inc.
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
National Council on Aging
National Organization for Women
National Senior Corps Association
National Senior Citizens Law Center
NCCNHR: The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care
OWL – The Voice of Midlife and Older Women
Service Employees International Union
The Gerontological Society of America
Volunteers of America
National Adult Protective Services Association
Women’s Institute for A Secure Retirement
