To raise awareness of and engagement with AARP among Hispanic/Latino communities, Create The Good and AARP Segunda Juventud have joined forces to offer AARP's self-directed volunteering kits in Spanish. Tell your friends they can now launch their own Operation Energy Save or Operation Emergency Prepare, disseminate Home Safety Tips or help people manage drugs with RxSnapShot. 

http://www.aarpsegundajuventud.org/spanish/aboutaarp/Create_the_Good/toolkits.html

Reps. Blumenauer and Boustany champion bipartisan follow-up care legislation

Legislation would allow more Americans to get services at home  

Some call themselves "word nerds," others prefer the term "wordsmith." They're all gearing up for the 2009 AARP National Spelling Bee. Early birds from all over the country have already signed up.

A new analysis by AARP’s Public Policy Institute reveals the manufacturers of many top-selling biologic drugs have recouped average research and development costs several times over in the past six years, often within a single year. The report’s finding busts the myth that allowing generic versions of biologic drugs will undermine further development of these breakthrough medicines.

Unlike traditional chemical drugs, biologic drugs are made from living organisms. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has no process in place to approve less costly generic versions of biologics, which can cost thousands of dollars each month.

AARP’s analysis of ten top-selling biologics finds these drugs have had U.S. sales of between $5.5 billion and $14.9 billion since 2003. The average development cost for a new biologic drug is $1.2 billion, according to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. All of the drugs examined more than recovered the average development cost of a biologic drug in just three years of sales between 2003 and 2005.

“For more than 20 years, generic versions of chemical drugs have given Americans access to safe, inexpensive treatments for their health problems without hindering scientific innovation,” said AARP Executive Vice President John Rother. “With more Americans taking biologic drugs for relatively common diseases like cancer and multiple sclerosis, it’s time to bring affordable generic biologics to the market.”

AARP is telling lawmakers that a process to approve generic biologic drugs must be a part of comprehensive health reform. The Association has endorsed the “Promoting Innovation and Access to Life-Saving Medicine Act” (H.R. 1427/S. 726), which would create a process for the approval of generic biologic drugs. This bill would prevent generic competition from entering the market for the first five years after a new biologic drug is approved, providing a common-sense balance between encouraging innovation and increasing access to these life-saving medicines.

Rother added: “This bill is a win-win both for biologic drug makers and for those Americans with the most desperate medical conditions who are struggling to afford the medicines they need.”

A competing bill, the “Pathway for Biosimilars Act” (H.R. 1548), would force consumers to wait twelve years before being able to purchase the lower cost generic version of their medicine.

AARP’s report, “Biologics in Perspective: The Case for Generic Biologic Drugs,” is available at http://www.aarp.org/research/health/drugs/fs155_biologics.html.

For details on AARP’s health reform priorities, visit http://www.aarp.org/governmentwatch.
 

Summer vacation may be approaching fast for California school kids, but your AARP California volunteers will be working hard on an advocacy blitz to improve the health care system. Keeping Medicare strong for current and future generations is a top priority. We want to lower costs for people on Medicare, while also eliminating waste, fraud and abuse that squander money, and result in medical errors and poor care.


Skyrocketing costs and our economic crisis are pricing millions of beneficiaries out of the care they need. Medicare patients now spend an average of 30% of their incomes on out-of-pocket health costs -- six times more than those with employer coverage


These runaway health costs burden families and the Medicare program itself. To address them, AARP supports an array of actions to contain costs, attack waste and make care more efficient. For example, AARP is also fighting to reduce unnecessary rehospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries. A recent study found that one in five people on Medicare who leave the hospital have to go back within 30 days, and about one-third have to go back within 90 days. These unplanned and often avoidable readmissions cost Medicare $17.4 billion in 2004.


A way to reduce them would be for Medicare to establish a follow up care benefit that helps patients transition home safely after a hospital stay. Under such a benefit, a team of health professionals could establish an individual plan for each patient, to make sure he or she gets adequate follow-up help -- including medication management and education -- to thrive after discharge to home or another facility.


These common-sense health reforms are not likely to be enacted without AARP’s leadership. We need your support and your voice to convince Congress to act on them. So please sign up today at www.healthactionnow.org .

 

Swine Flu

AARP urges anyone with flu-like symptoms—including fever, body aches, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea—to contact their health professional to find out if they should be tested or treated for seasonal influenza or swine flu.

You can help prevent the spread of swine flu and other illnesses by:

• Washing your hands regularly with soap and water;
• Covering your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze;
• Avoiding touching your eyes, nose and mouth;
• Avoiding contact with sick people; and
• Staying home from school or work if you feel sick.

While we encourage all older Americans to get an annual vaccine for seasonal flu, the swine flu strain is not prevented by the seasonal flu vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control have important information about swine flu available at www.cdc.gov/swineflu

General Information about Seasonal Influenza: 

We encourage people to take personal responsibility for their health with preventive measures—like flu shots—to guard against illness and disease. Keeping people healthy is more efficient and economical than caring for people after they get sick.

People 50+ are more vulnerable to the flu and its complications, so anyone 50 or older should get a flu shot. You can find a flu shot clinic at www.aarp.org/flu.

A growing number of Americans are caregivers. This sandwich generation needs to get immunized to prevent serious disease for themselves and also for the people they care for—grandchildren and older parents.

In a 2007 AARP survey, we learned nearly half of 50+ Americans skipped their flu shot. Many mistakenly believed the vaccine could give them the flu.

This is also a good time to ask your doctor about a vaccine for pneumococcal disease, which causes 4,800 deaths annually. Everyone 65+ should consider a pneumococcal vaccine.