By NANCY COFFER
Senior State Director, AARP Oklahoma
For more than 50 years
AARP’s mission has been educating and engaging in the issues
most important to our members. Health care reform is not a
Democratic or Republican issue – it’s an American
issue. AARP does not support any political party or agenda. We
advocate on behalf of 40 million older Americans, including
442,000 older Oklahomans.
In 2003, AARP worked with
President Bush to pass Medicare Part D because it helped millions
of Americans – thousands of Oklahomans – get access to
prescription drugs. We fought for Part D, over the objections of
some Democrats, not because it was a Republican issue but because
it was an American issue.
Two years later, when the debate
shifted, we fought the privatization of Social Security, over the
objections of some of the same people with whom we worked to pass
Part D. Not because it was a Democratic issue, but because it was
an American issue.
Today, we find ourselves in the
middle of the debate on health care reform. AARP has been working
with leaders of both parties to pass essential, bipartisan
legislation that will provide older Americans access to
affordable, quality health care. We are aggressively working towards:
-
protecting Medicare benefits;
-
ending discrimination based
on age or pre-existing conditions;
-
lowering the costs of health
care, including prescription drugs; and
-
eliminating waste, fraud and abuse.
Specifically, we have endorsed a
variety of bipartisan bills, that include Republican co-authors
among whom are: Senators John Cornyn of Texas, Charles Grassley of
Iowa, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Olympia
Snowe of Maine, Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri and
Congressmen Nathan Deal of Georgia and Charles Boustany, a surgeon
from Louisiana.
AARP is working diligently to
ensure these measures make it into the final legislation.
We support plans to increase pay
for doctors with Medicare patients and encourage medical students
to go into primary care so that everyone in Medicare can continue
to see their own doctor and to close the gap in Medicare Part D
known as the donut hole.
AARP believes in fiscal
responsibility and we can pay for these improvements without
adding to our deficit by rooting out the waste, fraud and abuse
that are driving up older Americans’ Medicare premiums and
other health care bills.
AARP will not support a health
care bill that cuts Medicare benefits or puts bureaucracy between
the patient and the doctor. Nor would we ever support rationing care.
Let’s not lose sight of
what’s at stake in the health care debate: while costs are
skyrocketing, millions of Americans – thousands of
Oklahomans -- are losing their jobs and health coverage and
countless businesses are being forced to drop their health care
plans or close their doors. Family
premiums for employer-sponsored insurance will jump nearly 40%
by 2012 and will almost double by 2016. The full cost will rise
from an average of about $13,000 this year to over $24,000 in
2016. For Medicare beneficiaries, premiums have doubled
since 2000.
Health care reform is not a
Democratic or Republican issue – it’s an American issue.
