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AARP CEO Sets Association Priorities that Promote Health and Long-term Financial Security
New Survey Released Indicates Concern about Retirement Security Issues: Only 52% of Americans polled are ‘somewhat confident’ that they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement / News Release
February 21, 2007
At an event today where he outlined the organization's annual legislative and advocacy priorities, AARP CEO Bill Novelli called on Congress and the Administration to find common-sense solutions to meet the concerns of Americans who fear for their health and long-term financial security.
"The need for health and financial security is something we all share, not just for ourselves, but for future generations. It is the promise of America…the foundation of the American dream," Novelli said. "If we don't act soon, the next generation will be the first in American history to be less well off than their parents. We can't let that happen. We can't allow the promise of America to be broken."
Novelli referenced the new initiative called Divided We Fail, calling the effort a way to "give public anxiety a public voice". Through Divided We Fail, AARP, Business Roundtable and SEIU seek to develop a political climate of bipartisanship and send a clear message to political leaders: break the gridlock, and come up with solutions to health and financial security issues.
AARP Legislative Policy Director David Certner laid out the AARP 2007 Advocacy Agenda designed to address the top concerns of Americans and their families including: reining in the high cost of health care; curtailing the spiraling increases in the costs of prescription drugs and improving upon the successful Part D program; developing a more universal savings system; and enhanced energy assistance programs to offset rising energy bills.
Following are a few of the pieces of legislation AARP supports, or is working to support, in the 110th Congress:
- H.R. 4, "The Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007" to provide Medicare the authority to bargain for lower drug prices;
- Providing for the safe and legal importation of prescription drugs (S. 242/H.R. 380);
- Federal and state policies to modernize health care with information technology, consumer access to information on health care quality and costs, greater reliance on evidence-based practices, chronic care coordination, disease management and prevention;
- Auto IRA legislation that would ensure access to a payroll deduction savings plan for the tens of millions of Americans not covered by an employer plan; and
- Efforts to increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
AARP Group Executive Officer for Policy & Strategy John Rother discussed a new "Retirement Security Survey Report." The survey found only a bare majority—52 percent—is at least somewhat confident that they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, including 12 percent who say they are very confident. The survey indicates high support for Social Security, as well as additional savings vehicles.
84 percent of those surveyed now agree with the statement, "Even though I might be able to do better on my own, I think it is important to contribute to Social Security for the common good." The survey shows a high rate of approval of alternative retirement investment vehicles that supplement but do not replace Social Security: auto IRA's, auto 401(k)s, and add-on accounts.
"There is room in the conversation about Social Security reform to persuade people to support an adequate set of reforms," Rother noted. "And there is also support for supplemental enhanced savings plans."
According to the survey:
- Eight in 10 favor the creation of Auto-IRA's by employers who do not offer some type of retirement plans; and
- Three-quarters also favor Auto 401(k)'s, whereby they would be enrolled automatically by their employers unless they opted out, their funds would be invested for them unless they did so for themselves, and their 401(k) contributions would increase with salary increases, unless they opted out of this provision.
"For many of these issues, the answers are staring at us in the face. All that is needed is action. It's time to put all ideas on the table and get to solutions," Novelli said.
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. We produce AARP The Magazine, published bimonthly; AARP Bulletin, our monthly newspaper; AARP Segunda Juventud, our bimonthly magazine in Spanish and English; NRTA Live & Learn, our quarterly newsletter for 50+ educators; 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.