By Meagan Wiseley – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

AARP CEO A. Barry Rand announced Thursday that the lobbying organization for seniors’ interests is endorsing the House health care bill.

“On behalf of our nearly 40 million members, AARP is pleased to endorse the Affordable Health Care for America Act,” Rand said during a press conference.

Rand said the House bill improves and strengthens Medicare benefits and protects the program for future generations. He also said the bill restricts insurance companies from discriminating against older Americans.

“The Affordable Health Care for America Act…meets those goals with improved benefits for people in Medicare and needed health insurance market reforms to help ensure every American can purchase affordable health coverage,” said Rand.

The House is preparing to vote on this bill as soon as Saturday.

Rand added, “As members of the House gear up for this historic vote, they will hear from older Americans.”

AARP is the largest membership organization for people over 50.

AARP CEO A. Barry Rand endorses the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

President Obama held a press conference Friday to give an update on the progress of health care reform. He said that more groups are signing on to tackle the issue including pharmaceutical companies, AARP, American Nurses Association and the American Medical Association. In addition, Obama said he is committed to not having health care add to the national deficit. The President was definite in saying that health care reform will be achieved by the end of this year. (9:06)

 

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President Barack Obama announced an agreement between the administration and pharmaceutical companies Monday to lower the cost of medication for Medicare recipients.

The agreement seeks to eliminate the so-called “doughnut hole”, in which Medicare only covers prescription drug costs up to $2,700 annually and again when drug costs exceed $6,154 a year, but not the costs landing between the two benchmarks.

Through the agreement, pharmaceutical companies will provide $80 billion to lower the costs of medication for Medicare recipients over the next ten years.

“Drug and insurance companies stand to benefit when tens of millions more Americans have coverage. So we’re asking them, in exchange, to make essential concessions to reform the system and help reform costs,” said Obama. “It’s only fair.”

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, for Talk Radio News Service

Susan Reinhard, AARP’s Public Policy Institute, says that we will need as many as a million more nurses that we’ll have in 2025. To get there, we’ll need twice as many instructors as we have now, but half of current instructors will have been lost to retirement.

The net result is that, as hospitals scramble to hire, about 100,000 potential nursing students were turned away for lack of slots.

“Nursing is a recession-proof job.”

 

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Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, for Talk Radio News Service

Susan Reinhard, of AARP’s Public Policy Institute helped found the new Champion Nursing Coalition in response a critical and worsening shortage. Thousands of qualified prospective students are being turned away from nursing programs for lack of enrollment capacity, she said. At the same time, she continued, there will be a deficit of 500,000 to a million nurses by 2025.

John Lumpkin, MD, MPH, of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation described a few of the many roles nurses fill, clinical, social, chronic care, and administrative. He called the shortage unprecedented.

There is some good news, however, according to Nancy LeaMond Ex. VP at AARP. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) polls show overwhelming positive ratings and public support for the profession. AHRQ is a federal agency tasked with studies of healthcare improvement.

Citing Institute of Medicine Studies, Nancy Reller, representing Consumers Advancing Patient Safety, said that understaffing of nurses is associated with worse outcomes.

Jerald Newberry, for the National Education Association, said that asthma, obesity, and diabetes are so common in elementary schools that every one of them should have a nurse, but that many do not.

The panel recommends that funds be used to expand nursing programs, which would require about twice as many instructors as now. As it stands, about half of current instructors are expected to retire over the next decade.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Senior Policy Advisor with the John McCain campaign speaks about McCain’s health care insurance proposal. Holtz-Eakin was on hand with Barack Obama Policy Advisor Jeffrey Liebman to discuss how the next president will pay our nation’s bills; the forum was sponsored by AARP. (0:47)

 

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Economics, tax cuts, social security and health care dominated a discussion held by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) today looking at how the next president will pay the nation’s bills. AARP, which is the nation’s largest lobbying organization, held the forum with policy advisors for both Senators McCain and Obama. The discussion was moderated by Wall Street Journal Economics Editor David Wessel and also featured Diane Lim Rogers from the Concord Coalition and John Rother with AARP. (more…)

Jeffrey Liebman, a policy advisor to the Barack Obama campaign says the McCain campaign put out an economic plan in which they said the Obama campaign cannot afford our benefit promises to seniors for social security. But Liebman says that Obama “does believe we can choose to meet our benefit promises to seniors.” Liebman added that Obama believes the best way to handle social security is “in a bi-partisan way,” and that the place to start in paying for it is “to have the people that can most afford it contribute more revenue.” (0:40)

 

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Douglas Holtz-Eakin a policy advisor with the John McCain campaign criticizes Sen. Barack Obama for reversing his positions on a whole host of issues. In attacking, Holtz-Eakin says “words from the Obama campaign have a very short half life.” Holt-Eakin was joined by Jeffrey Liebman from the Obama campaign for an AARP forum on paying our nation’s future bills by the next president. (1:19)

 

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