Divided We Fail: 50-plus voters are the heart of AARP's new campaign
By: AARP Bulletin Editors Source: AARP Bulletin Today Date Posted: February 2007
The fastest-growing item in this year's $2.8 trillion federal budget is the $249 billion we pay for interest on the national debt. That figure has grown 35 percent since 2005. With the prospect of budget deficits for years to come, these skyrocketing interest costs reflect the sad state of government in Washington in 2007: The system is broken and drastically out of balance.
Starting with red ink, doomsayers have plenty of ammunition: budget deficits, trade deficits, a savings deficit, health care costs increasing twice as fast as inflation, and rising numbers of people losing pension coverage and health insurance. And the worst is yet to come: Americans are facing the likelihood that they will outlive whatever savings they have accumulated.
But look again. States are experimenting with health care coverage. California is considering an ambitious plan to care for the state's 6.5 million uninsured.
Businesses are seeking new partners and new options as they try to ease the burden of health care costs. They are exploring new initiatives such as in-house clinics, hiring older workers and providing retirement savings accounts for their current and former employees. And health care and strengthening Social Security are back on the public agenda.
Across the nation thousands of individual success stories underscore the reality. In family kitchens, in corporate boardrooms, in union halls and university labs and classrooms, a critical mass is forming, a recognition of the urgency of problems associated with an aging society and a realization that it's time to discover and deliver solutions to health care and personal finance challenges.
In that context, AARP has taken a giant step, joining with the Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union to ignite a national movement and search for solutions.
The alignment of these stars of urgency and possibility coincides with the electoral calendar in an important way. The over-50 voters form the battleground in the looming 2008 national election because they cast the majority of votes in the last election. They are impatient—and independent. No group of voters shifted their political support from Republicans to Democrats more sharply last November than did the 50-plus voters. That means that candidates will be forced to deal with their concerns, and candidates will be taken to task if they don't deliver.
The Dynamics
Here are the economic trends at work:
Half of our country's workers lack pensions or aren't adequately saving for retirement.
Sixteen percent of the national economy is consumed by health care. People over 65 occupy 40 percent of hospitals' acute care beds, spend 50 percent of U.S. health care dollars and buy 25 percent of prescription drugs. The number of people without health insurance has grown to 46.6 million.
The federal budget deficit has exploded since 2001; the nation's overall indebtedness and dependence on overseas financiers and energy are approaching a dangerous breaking point; and the cost of the nation's losing battle for affordable health care accelerates. And for the first time since the Depression, Americans are spending more than they earn.
The combined costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—the foundations of health and economic security for older Americans—are on track to grow from $1.1 trillion in 2006 to $2.27 trillion in 2016. At that rate, funds set aside for Social Security will be exhausted in four decades—within the life span of half of today's boomers. Medicare's finances are even more precarious; the program's trust funds could vanish within a decade.
Beyond the funding gaps is the deficit of knowledge about the future that older Americans face. A recent AARP study found that most boomers do not know the actual costs of nursing homes ($74,000 a year on average) or professional care ($35,000 a year) and believe mistakenly that Medicare covers most long-term health care costs. It doesn't.
Another dynamic is the inefficiency of the health care system. Compared to other industrial nations, all of which have government-financed systems, the per capita health spending in the United States ($6,102) is about twice as high as in Canada ($3,165), France ($3,159), Australia ($3,120) or Great Britain ($2,508), according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Yet our life expectancy is lower (77.5) and our infant mortality rate is higher (6.9 per thousand births) than in these other four industrialized nations. Still, any attempt to effect change has been derailed.
The Doers
"Frustrated by paralysis in Washington, people have turned and looked into their communities," says Scott Denman, senior program officer for the Wallace Global Fund, which has just awarded its first round of grants totaling $1 million for community activists and environmental innovators. "They've concluded, 'If we're going to have leadership for problems from health care to global warming, we're going to have to do it ourselves.' "
Consider one self-starter, Jack McConnell, 81, a physician and researcher who retired to play golf in Hilton Head, S.C. He discovered that he was bored and that a large number of his neighbors lacked adequate health care. He started a free medical clinic, lured other retired doctors and nurses to help, persuaded the county to waive licensing procedures, then secured malpractice insurance at reduced rates. Now the Volunteers in Medicine Institute has utilized his model to establish a network of more than 50 neighborhood clinics across the country. He credits his parents. "They asked us at the end of each day what we had done for someone else that day," he said as he received an Impact Award from AARP The Magazine in December.
Consider too that Wal-Mart, Costco, Walgreens and CVS are developing new business models with low-cost generic drugs and drive-up quick-treatment clinics, a low-budget alternative to emergency rooms, hospitals and doctors' offices. Other companies are making enrollment in 401(k) plans automatic and are meeting their work force needs by hiring older workers. There's also a whole new generation of small-business entrepreneurs, many of them 50-plus workers who lost old jobs and have recycled as their own bosses [see Start-ups for Grownups].
Consider also that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants California to join Massachusetts and Vermont as a state where residents receive full health care insurance coverage. He has also embraced global warming as a health initiative despite the Bush administration's refusal to allow California to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. "We have to make moves that protect the health of the people," he told The Washington Post in December. "We don't want Washington to tell us when we are allowed to be healthy or when we should get cancer."
The Deciders
We are the battleground. Not only does the 50-plus bloc represent a majority of voters, but from 2004 to 2006, nearly one in five voters over 50 switched their party vote from Republican to Democrat.
This generation of involved citizens is at the heart of AARP's new "Divided We Fail" campaign. The objective is to galvanize interest, collect individual stories and inspire initiatives in 10 specific areas of health care and financial security. With partners from big business, labor unions and health provider associations, the effort will stretch over the next two years.
"Divided we fail," says AARP's CEO, Bill Novelli. "But united we will succeed and create the change that will make life better for everyone."
The emphasis is on unity. The goal is a louder voice in the public debate, especially as the nation looks ahead to an energized presidential election cycle.
That's where the AARP Bulletin comes in. While we work to educate and inform our members about these important issues, we can help encourage discussion, especially when the nation is so polarized.
That means ensuring that these issues also get the attention of our political leaders—that they are asked the critical questions. Part of our task is to make sure the answers meet the test of common sense. Tell us what you think.
preview