Move On says AARP selling out medicare

That would be the way I also see it.

Edgar
Edgar, obscene how AARP is selling out its membership to make more money on their drug program. Disgusting!

BBB

Big money has about gotten the common people sold out in every area of existence. I don't belong to AARP, but I wish I did long enough to tell them how I feel before dropping them.

Edgar -- I got the MoveOn email and acted toute suite. Glad you have started this thread. I don't think most AARP members are aware that it has become a big corporation with about as much respect for its membership as Enron did for its investors.

What are the "sharply increased premiums" ?----anyone know?

Why would the Republicans take a chance on alienating a very large segment of the electorate-----who all vote?

What is the agenda of "Move On. org"-----convince me they have the interests of the "Seniors" at heart intead of some other political motivation.

The Democrats could have made a better stand here.

It has become obvious.
The Repubs and even the majority of the Dems. do not have the less than wealthy people in mind anymore when it comes to anything. The Amerikan Empire has decided that it no longer needs the common people, so they are selling them out. The Amerikan Empire is moving toward an Oligarchy Police State.

Haven't as yet taken a good look at the proposed finish product. However, if the prescription drug portion is any indication it is the typical dreck coming out of our congress. The greater majority of seniors will be getting shafted by it. The only benefit will be to those who have exceedingly high prescription costs. The rest of us will be forced to buy an insurance policy in the event that we will have these exceedingly high bills. I should note that the premium we pay will not be the touted $35 a month but whatever the insurance company decides to charge. The drug prescription bill is indeed a benefit but not for the senior, for the insurance companies. The premise under which it has passed is it is better than nothing and we will improve it later. I do not agree poor legislation is worse than none at all. In this instance it is designed to destroy what is working in order to push the ill conceived concept of Medicare privatization. It's HMO for you or we will price you out of the benefit. AARP goodby.

Not a member and don't plan to join. I do not like their politics, and am happy to pass on the membership benefits they claim.

Au, According to the news, there isn't a finished product yet. Congress itself hasn't seen the finished product (this was in the report in the Tuesday NYTimes).

Tartarin
I am aware it isn't a finished product yet that is why I said proposed. However, what we have seen to this point is an almost finished product and as far as the prescription drug plan that is firm and hasn't changed in months.

Au -- There's a guy in San Antonio who appears on talk shows in times like this because he is both a practicing cardiologist and a lawyer. He was on, I guess it was Tuesday morning, and had some really interesting things to say. First, he was outraged because the San Antonio Express News had, that morning, printed the same report than had been in the NYTimes BUT deleted the sentence which stated that members of Congress had not yet been able to see the finished product. He suspects that they will vote without knowing entirely what's in the bill. He had nothing good to say about the bill, as much as he knew about it.

This is one of the many reasons I'm grateful to MoveOn for rallying the troops: MoveOn persistently alerts its members, passing on whatever info it has.

Tartarin
For a congress person to vote yea on legislation they have only a passing knowledge of is not unusual. In fact it is the norm. Their leadership drives the ship and oftimes they are just passengers along for the ride.

Dems expose AARP connection to Repugs & Drug Industry
Kennedy, Daschle and Pelosi Join Alliance for Retired Americans and Hundreds of Senior Activists for a Rally to Oppose Medicare Bill

11/18/03 2:20:00 PM
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To: Assignment Desk, Daybooks

Contact: Ilana Sabban of the Alliance for Retired Americans,
*****************************************
EDIT Terms of Service

MODERATOR


Article III, Section C:


*************************************

News Advisory:

Hundreds of senior activists will descend on Capitol Hill Wednesday, November 19, to express their outrage and opposition to the proposed Medicare prescription drug bill announced by conferees.

"We vehemently disagree with those who say any bill is better than nothing," said George J. Kourpias, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans. "We believe no bill is better than a bad bill. Seniors will not be fooled by what amounts to nothing more than a payout to special interests. Our members have long fought for a meaningful prescription drug benefit under Medicare, and what the conferees have offered is a lemon."

The Alliance strongly opposes the bill because it would privatize Medicare, puts millions of seniors at risk of having no coverage, has no guaranteed premiums, threatens employer-provided retiree coverage and does nothing to curb the skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs.

"The Bush Administration and Congress are callously using a much needed and long awaited prescription drug benefit to privatize Medicare," said Edward F. Coyle, executive director of the Alliance. "Medicare as we know it will cease to exist under the proposed bill, and seniors are coming from all over to say they will not stand for it."

WHAT: Rally to Stop Congress from Passing a Lemon of a Bill

WHO:

George J. Kourpias, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans

Senator Edward Kennedy

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Eleanor Kuhns, retiree

Audrey Wiest, retiree

Edward F. Coyle, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans

Hundreds of members of the Alliance for Retired Americans

WHEN: 12 p.m. on Wednesday, November 19, 2003

WHERE: Russell Caucus Room, Russell Senate Building, Third Floor

http://www.usnewswire.com/
/© 2003 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/

When AARP's Director Speaks, Lawmakers Listen
When AARP's Director Speaks, Lawmakers Listen
As head of the largest seniors group, William D. Novelli has the clout to effect change. He has been assailed for backing Medicare bill.
By Elizabeth Shogren
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer - November 20, 2003

WASHINGTON ?- After a one-on-one meeting with President Bush, William D. Novelli, executive director of AARP, emerged from the White House late Monday afternoon with a broad grin on his face.

Only a few hours earlier, the nation's largest seniors group, 35 million members strong, had endorsed the Republican-drafted plan to revamp Medicare. Now, Novelli had been praised, in person, by the president for the important role he and his group were playing to make the legislation a reality.

But with his support of the bill, he also became one of the most vilified people in Washington; even many members of his own group turned on him. Still, critics and supporters agreed on this much: The AARP stamp of approval made the legislation more likely to become law.

Novelli is unabashed about his rarefied position as a private citizen with considerable say over the fate of public policy. In fact, he says, the chance to help wield the colossal influence of AARP, previously known as the American Assn. of Retired Persons, was why he took the job.

"My great personal goal in life is to make contributions to solving important social problems," Novelli said in an interview Wednesday. His job at AARP, he said, was providing him with "by far the biggest" opportunity yet to live out his dream of being a catalyst for social change.

AARP's endorsement was a huge win for the president and other Republican leaders, who used it to show that the package was a good deal for seniors and would not, despite its critics, undermine Medicare. But on Capitol Hill, as the details of the bill were being considered Wednesday by a conference committee, GOP leaders worked to shore up support. They brought in former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) to urge conservatives ?- wary of a huge expansion of a government program ?- to sign on.

Democrats said Novelli's move carried the risk that AARP members would rebel. At the impetus of Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma), 85 House Democrats planned to sign a joint letter canceling their AARP memberships.

Rep. Marion Berry (D-Ark.) said calls from constituents to his office were running 10-to-1 against the bill.

"They know a bad deal when they see one," Berry said.

Also on Wednesday, AARP and the American Medical Assn. began multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns designed to build support for the bill. AARP ads ask people to tell Congress to pass the bill. It isn't perfect, the ads acknowledge, "but millions of American can't afford to wait for perfect."

Novelli said that although the bill fell short of the organization's hopes, he did not want to pass up a chance to get an additional $400 billion over 10 years for Medicare.

"Perfect isn't in the cards," he stressed.

Novelli's next challenge is to use the ads, AARP's state organizations, the group's publications and other resources to convince members, their children and legislators that the positives of the bill outweigh the negatives.

For AARP to take such a leadership role in trying to craft and then sell public policy shows the influence Novelli has had on the group in the last four years, since he took its helm. Since a 1988 fiasco over a catastrophic-illness benefit law, which was endorsed by the organization but was so fervently opposed by seniors that it was repealed the year after it was passed, AARP had been reticent to exert its influence.

Novelli "has made the AARP a more powerful force for social change," said John Rother, the organization's policy and strategy director and a 20-year veteran of the group. "He's not hesitant to use the power we do have through our credibility and our reach to get these things through."

For Novelli, using the powers of communication to make societal changes is nothing new. As a co-founder of worldwide public relations giant Porter Novelli, he represented clients who were working for such causes as fighting cancer, promoting the use of seat belts and encouraging charitable donations for the developing world.

He took that experience when he quit the corporate world to become executive vice president of CARE, the world's largest private relief agency, and later to fight against tobacco companies as the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

He is drawing on all that as he tries to turn AARP into a formidable force for social change. "I feel that all of that background and training has been to train me for this," he said.

Novelli said he was "accountable" for AARP's endorsement of the bill because he strongly influenced the board to support it.

He stressed that AARP did not give its blessing until the organization had helped win changes to the legislation, such as incentives for employers to continue providing benefits to retirees and a rollback ?- from a national program to a six-region demonstration ?- of competition between traditional Medicare and private health plans that would receive government subsidies to take on Medicare patients.

Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a national advocacy group for health care consumers, does not back the legislation, but he praised the thoughtful, energetic role Novelli played in trying to shape it to benefit seniors. "I have deep admiration for what Bill Novelli is doing at AARP and the constructive role he played throughout this legislative process," Pollack said. "Bill has felt strongly about the importance of action ... and he and his colleagues worked hard to achieve some important improvements in the legislation."

But other players in the Medicare debate attacked Novelli for compromising too much.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) wrote to him Wednesday expressing "profound concern" about his decision to endorse the bill, which they said would force many seniors to pay higher health care premiums and more for prescription drugs.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) contended that Novelli had been "co-opted" in a past compromise to such an extent that he no longer served the interest of his constituency.

Waxman said that in 1997, as president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Novelli supported a deal between tobacco companies and states that would have given the companies some protection against lawsuits in exchange for $368 billion in reimbursements to the states for smoking-related health costs.

Many of the other leaders of the anti-smoking coalition were "furious" about the proposed settlement, Waxman recalled.

"It drove a wedge in the anti-tobacco coalition," he said. Eventually, that proposal fell apart.

"I see a pattern of a guy who doesn't have good judgment," Waxman said. "He gets co-opted by the other side and talks himself into a bad deal."

But Novelli defended AARP's decision, which was made by its board of directors Sunday evening.

The bill before Congress, he said, was the best deal that could be made now to address one of the biggest challenges facing seniors ?- paying for prescription drugs.

And the reason for his wide smile when he was leaving the White House, he said, was his sense that victory was at hand.

"I think we are on the verge of getting this," Novelli said. "I think the stars are aligning."

However, he said, there is still work to do to assure passage.

On Capitol Hill, AARP advisor Gingrich tried to win the support of conservative House members by drawing lawmakers' attention to a tax-free savings measure buried in the bill.

"He said this was the first step in revolutionizing the way we provide health care," said Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), adding Gingrich was greeted with a standing ovation.

Pelosi, hoping to stiffen her rank-and-file members' spines, made it clear in a caucus Wednesday she regarded opposition to the Medicare bill as a core party principle that she expected members to uphold.

And pollster Guy Molyneaux told Democratic lawmakers that a public opinion survey he had conducted for the AFL-CIO found that the more seniors learned about what was in the bill, the less likely they were to support it.

It's an outrage and a sham.
This legistlation wouldn't even take effect until 2006. Also, the drug part of the bill has not been seen by anyone. The drug part, 1,100 pages is supposed to surface on a day that Senators have only a few hours to review it. It is a disgrace!!! How can the AARP endorse something that no one has seen? Easy, they don't give a damn about Medicare or their members.

Amerika has become corupt to a point that in a few years this country will not be recognizable as America. It is going toward Amerika, where the Wealthy and The Police State will dominate and this country will be just another 3rd world outpost for the Multi-corps. If the citizens of this country don't slap themselves out of their slumber this country will not be fit to live in unless one is rich and walled in.

"For a congress person to vote yea on legislation they have only a passing knowledge of is not unusual. In fact it is the norm. Their leadership drives the ship and oftimes they are just passengers along for the ride."

My very point, Au. Why, look at the Patriot Act? Like, uh, who'd read that thing?

Anyone want an extra bumper sticker: "REPLACE CONGRESS NOW"?

Various Hearings
I have arrived at the conclusion that they are designed to make it appear that Congress actually cares about issues. Just show and tell to give an impresion that they care. In fact, I believe they mean nothing.