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Opinion Piece by Pat Game Hovey, AARP Utah State President

• Guaranteeing access to affordable coverage for Americans age 50-64.  ( In Utah more than 20,000 Utahns ages 50-64 are uninsured with many more under-insured.)  

• Closing the Medicare Part D coverage gap or “doughnut hole”.  (More than 20% of Medicare beneficiaries in Utah fall in to the Part D doughnut hole.  This means that more than 30,000 Medicare recipients in Utah must pay 100% of their prescription drug costs for at least part of the year.)

• Creating a Medicare transition benefit to help people safely return to their homes after a hospital stay and prevent costly hospital readmissions.

• Increasing federal funding and eligibility for home and community based services through Medicaid so older Americans can remain in their homes and avoid more costly institutions as they age.

• Creating a pathway for the approval of generic versions of biologic drugs to reduce the price of these costly treatments.

• Improving the Medicare Savings Programs and the Part D Low Income Subsidy (LIS) so more Americans can afford the health care and prescription drugs they need.

• A proposal that jeopardizes Medicare. The current bills seek to eliminate waste, fraud, and procedures that offer no benefit.  They also would reduce overpayments to private insurers in Medicare Advantage plans.

• The government making life and death decisions for anyone regardless of their age. Rather, there is a proposal that would allow physicians to be paid for time spent counseling and answering questions about “advance directives,” “living wills,” “durable powers of attorney,” and hospice care for those who inquire .
  
  
• Rationing care for older Americans. Nothing in any of the current proposals leads to this scenario.