AARP to Congress: Don’t Make Medicare More Expensive
Source: AARP Press Center
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2009
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AARP Media Relations, 202-434-2560
AARP to Congress: Don’t Make Medicare More Expensive
Association fighting proposals that would unfairly burden people in Medicare
WASHINGTON—AARP CEO Barry Rand today wrote to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, urging Congress to find ways to pay for comprehensive health care reforms beyond the Medicare savings already announced that will improve the program’s efficiency. In a letter to Chairman Waxman, Rand applauded the committee’s reported compromise agreement for “hold[ing] the line on additional Medicare savings.” Rand emphasized that AARP members would not support legislation that finances reform through higher out-of-pocket costs or reduced benefits for people in Medicare.
“AARP cannot support any efforts to target Medicare beneficiaries for increased cost-sharing or other benefit cuts,” Rand wrote. “In addition, we cannot support backdoor attempts to finance health care reform through increases in beneficiary costs or reductions in benefits, for example, through use of commissions or other process mechanisms.”
Rand noted that people in Medicare today already spend, on average, nearly 30 percent of their income on out-of-pocket health care costs, restating the Association’s fight against proposals that would unfairly burden people in Medicare.
Rand added: “We know you share the position, expressed by the President in his July 22 press conference—and reiterated this week in AARP’s own tele-town hall—that health reform will not result in less generous Medicare benefits.”
AARP has reassured its members that proposals it has reviewed so far to save money in Medicare will not raise their out-of-pocket costs or reduce access to care. AARP has urged Congress to find smart Medicare savings, such as reducing payments to private insurers in Medicare, lowering drug costs and preventing avoidable hospital readmissions.
In the letter, Rand applauded the Energy and Commerce Committee’s compromise agreement, which reportedly retains many of the key priorities of AARP’s members, including closing the Part D doughnut hole, strictly limiting age-rating and creating subsidies to help more Americans purchase their choice of coverage.
“We are pleased the House bill retains a stricter 2 to 1 limit on how much more insurers can charge older Americans for premiums,” Rand wrote. “In addition, we are pleased that the House Energy and Commerce bill still provides sliding-scale subsidies up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. These subsidies are essential to making certain our members can afford coverage and not pay an unfair percentage of their incomes for health care expenses.”
For more information about AARP’s Health Action Now campaign, please visit www.healthactionnow.org.
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