Strengthen Health Care and Retirement Security

AARP agrees. Instead, we need a national discussion to develop the tools and strategy for strengthening health care and retirement security – and for restoring prosperity to the middle class.

Many believe that Congress should be able to reduce the deficit without jeopardizing the health care and retirement security system that Americans depend on, that they have worked for and have paid into all their lives. Lawmakers could begin by cutting wasteful spending – including in our health care system – attacking fraud and eliminating tax loopholes. Their failure to date has made our members, and people 50-plus, even more cynical about the ability of government to come to grips with these issues.

They are anxious to hear solutions that address the problems faced by real people. They want to hear ideas that would lead to more jobs, bring efficiency, economy and fairness to health care and provide greater financial security.

“We have all worked hard and contributed to Social Security and Medicare for many years and we don’t know how we would survive without these benefits,” said Sharon of Worcester. “I think they are great plans, but need work and protection to keep them alive for future generations. We all get old and need some security in our lives.”

Give Americans a Voice

AARP believes it is time to take the conversation about Social Security and Medicare from behind closed doors and in to the public arena. It is time to give Americans a voice.

We are about to kick off an important national conversation on finding ways to strengthen health care and retirement security, and restore prosperity to the middle class. We want to hear your ideas. And, we want to hear what you think about the options already being discussed, especially what they would mean to you and your family. We all need to understand the impact these options would have both today and tomorrow.

AARP wants to ensure that current and future generations receive the benefits they have earned over a lifetime. With your ideas, input and involvement, together, we can achieve this goal.

Deborah Banda is the state director of AARP Massachusetts, which serves more than 800,000 members age 50 and over in the Bay State. This editorial appears in the January 2012 edition of The Fifty Plus Advocate, the statewide mature market newspaper.