RSS Feed
Important Work Remains
We at AARP watched President Obama's speech to the AMA and agree on several fronts: the skyrocketing cost of health care is the number one threat to our economy, our businesses and our livelihoods; we have to fundamentally reshape the way we deliver and pay for health care; and there is still some important work left to figure out the best way forward.
About half AARP's 40 million members depend on Medicare, where coverage gaps like the prescription drug 'doughnut hole' and rising costs force them to spend 30 percent of their incomes on health care.
We share the president's support for lowering the costs of prescription drugs--particularly for biologic drugs that do not currently face generic competition. AARP is also working to make sure that health-care reform closes the Medicare Part D doughnut hole--a coverage gap that puts older Americans on the hook to pay the entire cost of their prescription drugs while also paying their premiums. More than 3 million older Americans are forced into the doughnut hole each year, and countless more anxiously cut back on their prescription drugs to avoid it.
We know that reforming our broken health-care system will require upfront investments in order to reap long-term savings. It will also mean rooting out the waste and inefficiencies that have driven up the cost of care.
Medicare should be a leader in improving care and lowering costs, and we agree that there are ways we can eliminate wasteful spending and inefficiencies that will actually strengthen the program--including win-win solutions like a new follow-up care benefit for people leaving the hospital that will improve the quality of care, lower individual costs and save billions of dollars by preventing hospital readmissions.
We must hold down health-care costs and at the same time improve quality of care in order to strengthen Medicare for the millions of people who rely on it, literally, as a lifeline.
By
Nancy LeaMond
|
June 17, 2009; 10:45 PM ET
| Category:
Health Care Reform
,
Insurance
,
Medicare
Share This: 
Technorati
| Del.icio.us | Digg | Facebook
Previous: Change from Within |
Next: AMA Didn't Boo the President!
Posted by: tonieb | June 23, 2009 2:26 PM
Report Offensive Comment
Closing the "donut hole" gap in Medicare Part D is only part of the problem: we need to address the fact that Americans are taking far too many unnecessary prescriptions.
Imagine what would happen if a health care provider could prescribe: weight reduction programs, exercise programs, stress reduction programs - AND the American patient could get reimbursed by their health insurance provider for these same programs!
Most of the medications we currently take for: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type II diabetes, chronic back pain and depression could be drastically lowered or eliminated all together.
We'd be healthier, wealthier, thinner, and happier, instead of sicker, poorer, fatter and more stressed.
Better coverage for medication is not the answer - LESS medication and MORE life-style alteration is the answer.
Posted by: mac101 | June 20, 2009 7:44 PM
Report Offensive Comment
The comments to this entry are closed.
Nancy:
AARP is doing great things and I am proud to not only be a member (not retired yet) but also active in helping contact legislation when asked to .
Mac101 evidentally doesn't have any chronic conditions and doesn't know anyone who has diabetes, hereditary high cholesterol and blood pressure, hereditary back problems and depression caused by the pain you are in. I would like totrade places with them for a week and see how much they wanted pain meds gone. As someone who has Chronic Pain from RA and FMS, it is totally necessary for me to have these meds daily to conduct my life and to work and support myself. Better coverage for meds is totally necessary in this and every world that is real. Unless we are in a controlled society where we are only allowed certain activites, foods etc, there is no way to have the eutopia he (or she) speaks of. I am so blessed that I have only one medicine that is not generic that I take, but as my condition worsens I may have to move up to biologics which is not covered on my insurance and I cannot afford, as is the problem with a lot of Americans. What are we going to do ?
We need to stand up for us !