Vilsack and Miller Call for Strong State Role
in Proposed Consumer Legislation

States Must Play a Role in Enforcement for President’s Proposal to Work, They Say.

Des Moines. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and leaders of AARP today urged Congress not to strip state enforcement from President Obama’s proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack said: “In the three months from October to December 2008, American families lost $5.1 trillion in wealth and today, they are still paying the price for weak regulation and financial instability. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency will ensure that future mistakes by a few do not cause harm to so many. We owe it to the American people to ensure consumer protection regulations are written fairly and enforced vigorously and I am pleased to see Congress making progress on critical legislation to provide economic stability for American families and for the economy as a whole.”

“This is the most important consumer protection legislative issue of our day,” Attorney General Tom Miller said. “Preserving a proper role for the states is crucial if consumers are going to be protected from a repeat of the banking and mortgage abuses we’ve seen in recent years.”

“The beauty of the President’s proposal is that this agency will have only one mission - to protect consumers, “ Miller said. “Under the current, broken system, consumer protection is spread across many agencies all of which also have other jobs to perform. The President is saying that it needs to be someone’s full time job to be looking out for consumers.”

President Obama’s proposal for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency includes a strong role for the states to aid in enforcement to protect consumers. Congressional consideration of the bill begins this week but Congress is under heavy lobbying pressure from large bank interests to “preempt” or limit state enforcement powers. [Click here for information packet provided by the White House .]

“The big national banks — many of which had to be bailed out by taxpayers because of their involvement in the national mortgage meltdown — now want to be freed from effective consumer protection policing by the states,” said Miller.
“The big banks say they don’t want ‘too many cops on the beat’, Miller said, “but if there had been more cops on the beat, we might have been able to reduce some of the economic and personal devastation of the last couple of years.”

“Amendments to weaken the role of the states risk allowing a repeat of our recent disaster where the federal government pushed the states aside, and then failed to act in the public interest itself,” Miller said. “That system failed, and we had to spend hundreds of billions in taxpayer money to bail out the banks. Now the banks are fighting to make sure that failed system does not change.”

Miller and Vilsack made their remarks at a news briefing Tuesday along with representatives of AARP Iowa. Bruce Koeppl, AARP State Director, said, “AARP knows far too well that our members and older Americans in general have had their retirement savings decimated by this economic crisis. Creating an agency to protect their financial needs is a step in the right direction, but it would be wrong to diminish strong state consumer protections in the process. States can catch problems early, before they become nationwide.”

Miller noted that states are often in a better position than the federal government to see consumer protection needs and regulatory gaps. “The states are closer to the people and better able to see emerging trends,” he said. “When we are excluded from enforcement against national banks, we can help only citizens who happen to do business with a state chartered lender – even if national banks are engaging in the exact same practice. All consumers should be treated the same regardless of how their bank is chartered.”

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With Daylight Savings Time ending, and AARP Driver Safety Month and National Family Caregivers Month beginning, November is an opportune time to brush up on driving skills, have an important family conversation or recognize a caregiver. 

For resources and information on how to conduct important family conversations about driving, visit http://www.aarp.org/family/housing/driver_safety_program/we_need_to_talk/we_need_to_talk_3/

As health reform legislation moves forward in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, AARP is monitoring the debate very carefully and is committed to ensuring that Iowa members and future generations have the health coverage they need when they retire. 

• Lower drug costs and strengthen Medicare by closing the Medicare Part D “doughnut hole,” ensuring patient access to their doctors, not increasing co-pays and cracking down on fraud and wasteful spending.
• Protect your health care choices by ensuring you can choose your doctor, your health insurance plan and where to receive care.
• End discrimination by insurance companies by preventing insurance companies from denying coverage because of a preexisting condition or using age to price Americans ages 50 to 64 out of affordable, quality health insurance.
• Guarantee stable, affordable coverage ensuring you have the security of knowing that if you lose or change jobs, you will be able to get affordable, quality health insurance. 

Legislation passed today is yet another milestone in the long journey to health care reform

Oct. 13, 2009 - WASHINGTON — AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond released this statement following the Senate Finance Committee’s passage of the Affordable Health Choices Act:

“We applaud the Senate Finance Committee for taking another important step toward fixing what’s wrong with our health care system.  Under the leadership of Chairman Baucus, the legislation reported today moves us even closer to providing much-needed relief to millions of older Americans who still face challenges accessing affordable, quality health care services. 

“The Senate Finance Committee bill makes important improvements to the Medicare program by increasing preventive benefits, making sure Medicare’s doctors do not face a pay cut this year, and most notably for AARP members—by reducing drug costs for seniors who fall into the dreaded Medicare doughnut hole, a costly gap in prescription drug coverage.   Too often, those who fall into this coverage gap stop taking their prescription drugs because they simply can’t afford to.  While we applaud this assistance with drug costs in the doughnut hole, we urge the Senate to go further to meet the President’s pledge to completely close the doughnut hole.  With the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs, we believe this bill should be improved so that it can help millions of older Americans afford their needed medications and avoid more intensive and costly care later in life.

“The bill also makes some improvements on age-rating, a discriminatory practice that allows insurers to charge exorbitant, age-based premiums to older Americans.  Unfortunately, the bill will still allow insurance companies to charge older Americans premiums that are four times more than premiums for younger Americans, making it difficult for older Americans to afford health coverage.   We hope the final Senate bill will be improved in this area. 

“Finally, we strongly support provisions in the Senate Finance bill to expand home and community-based services (HCBS).  The vast majority of Americans age 50 and over want to live in their homes and communities as long as they can.  HCBS provisions are not only cost-effective, but can also help slow the growth in health care spending and keep millions of Americans out of nursing homes and in their own homes.

“The legislation passed today is yet another milestone in the long journey to health care reform.  We look forward to continuing our work with Chairman Baucus and his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to further strengthen the bill, and we will continue to fight for reform that protects benefits for people in Medicare, improves health care affordability, and improves the health of every American.”

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a whole.  AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to either political campaigns or candidates.  We produce AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for 50+ Americans and the world's largest-circulation magazine with over 35.5 million readers; AARP Bulletin, the go-to news source for AARP's 40 million members and Americans 50+; AARP Segunda Juventud, the only bilingual U.S. publication dedicated exclusively to the 50+ Hispanic community; and our website, AARP.org.  AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors.  We have staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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Washington, DC, Sept. 22, 2009 – On the heels of AARP Public Policy Institute’s Solutions Forum addressing the lack of a Social Security COLA for 2010, AARP released the following statistics today which highlight the impact of the economic recession on Social Security recipients.    Data shows that medical prices have risen during 2009, and Medicare beneficiaries with higher than average health care costs are hardest hit by not having a COLA next year. 

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2009—AARP Executive Vice President John Rother released this statement following today’s introduction of health care reform legislation in the Senate Finance Committee:

AARP Overnight Survey: Independents More in Favor of Health Reform

DES MOINES, Sept. 1, 2009 – Majorities of AARP Iowa members believe our health care system needs major changes and that Congress should act this year to pass health care reform legislation to curb rising costs and strengthen Medicare, according to results of a new survey of voting Iowa members age 50+, conducted Aug. 25-26, 2009.