Senior Solidarity Reforms Medicare
Professor David J. Demko, PhD
AgeVenture News Service
Medicare reform advocacy group, Citizens for Better Medicare, is calling for unions to ... well, unify ... Florida's efforts toward Medicare reform. The bottom-line? We're all in this together. Afterall, if we're lucky, we'll all reach a ripe old age. But, once there, will we send out "wish you were here" postcards to our younger friends? Or will we, like today's elderly, send back a warning ... "baby it's cold outside" ... and we're in Florida.
Seniors need better access to prescription drugs, but union-backed approach jeopardizes drug coverage for millions of union retirees. So says the Citizens for Better Medicare, a Florida Coalition for Medicare Reform which is challenging the Alliance for Retired Americans to drop their attack campaign and work toward comprehensive Medicare reform.
"Medicare was designed in the 1960’s to deliver 1960’s medicine to a 1960’s population," said Nona Wegner, CBM spokesperson. "Medicine has changed, the senior population has changed, but Medicare has not kept pace with these changes."
"Rather than engage in partisan political attacks, the unions would do better to engage in a constructive debate about the best ways to strengthen and improve the Medicare system for today’s seniors as well as the generations of seniors to come," said Wegner. "The irony of the union attacks is that most union retirees already have prescription drug benefits. But the union’s own approach jeopardizes the good private coverage for millions of union retirees who could end up with a one-size-fits-all government plan."
The most common complaint that CBM hears is that seniors should be able to choose the health care coverage that best suits our needs. "If choices in health care are good enough for nearly 10 million federal employees and Members of Congress, why are they not good enough for seniors like you and me" says Flora "Grandma" Green, Seniors Coalition member.
Citizens for Better Medicare supports the bipartisan Breaux-Frist proposal for Medicare reform which is based on the majority recommendation of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. The Breaux-Frist plan is a public-private partnership that empowers seniors with more and better health care choices, including prescription drug coverage. This is similar to the plan that almost 10 million federal employees, retirees and their families currently enjoy.
AgeVenture News Service will continue to follow the continuing saga of Medicare Reform, and report back to our readers. Stay tuned. Afterall, whatever twists and turns occur in Medicare reform ... things couldn't get any worse ... coverage-wise ... then they are now.
Citizens for Better Medicare is a grassroots organization representing the interests of patients, seniors, disabled Americans, large and small businesses, pharmaceutical research companies and others concerned with Medicare reform. To learn more about the Fort Lauderdale-based Citizens for Better Medicare, log on to their web site at: www.bettermedicare.org
See related articles in AgeVenture archives.
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Medicare Reform Requires Fresh Approach
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