Author Archives for Herb Weiss

Inaction on RIPAE Proposals Would Be a State Tragedy

Published in the Pawtucket Times on May 20, 2002

Lawmakers are rushing to finalize the state’s business, hoping to adjourn as early as the end of May.

With thousands of proposals in the legislative hopper, each representative was directed by House leadership to choose three of their own sponsored bills to push for in the Senate.

All legislative proposals that do not make the “priority” lists are as good as dead for the year.

At press time, one proposal, Pharmaceutical Assistance for the Elderly Program (RIPAE) moves closely to passage.

The House Finance Committee has put the proposal (H 7291) into the state budget article. Susan Sweet, a consultant and aging advocate said she expects full House passage of the state budget article by the end of the week.

Once passed by the House, the state budget article goes to the Senate for their consideration and approval. Sweet told All About Seniors that she believes that the Senate will quickly pass the budget, too.

With passage, the final state budget will be  forwarded to Governor Lincoln Almond.

Under H 7291, the state Department of Human Services would seek a waiver from the federal government, allowing Rhode Island to use Medicaid funding to pay for prescription drugs for low-income seniors with incomes up to $ 17,720 and couples with incomes up to $ 23,880.

The legislative proposal, authored by Lt. Governor Charles Fogarty and sponsored by Rep. Constantino and House Finance Chairman Gordon Fox, would enroll about 90 percent of the 37,000 seniors now enrolled in RIPAE. Because seniors would now qualify for prescription drug coverage under Medicaid all U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drugs would be covered not just those currently covered by RIPAE.

Seniors would pay a small copayment rather than the 40 percent co-payment currently charged.

With the passage of the state budget article, then “cleanup” begins on all legislative proposals, Sweet noted, adding that the two other RIPAE proposals have not been acted upon yet.

These legislative proposals would make prescription drugs more affordable to seniors and persons with disabilities who are not covered by the Medicaid waiver.

One bill (H 7290) would allow seniors enrolled in the RIPAE program to buy prescription drugs not currently covered by RIPAE at the discounted state price.

The other (H 7524) would allow low-income disabled persons on Social Security Disability Income who are between ages of 55 and 65 to become members of RIPAE and purchase prescription medications at the state discounted rate. Under booth, the state would be able to obtain the manufacturer’s rebate available through RIPAE.

Sweet along with other aging advocate groups, has called on the Rhode Island General Assembly to pass the three RIPAE proposals, which don’t cost the state one penny.

Not acting on them will continue a tragic trend that is well-documented in Rhode Island and nationwide.

That is, the high cost of prescription drugs forces many seniors on fixed incomes into not taking their prescribed medications at all or using only partial doses.

Moreover, noncompliance can lead to unnecessary hospitalization, nursing home admission and premature death.

Even in the shadow of a huge state budget deficit, lawmakers have the opportunity to lower the spiraling out-of-pocket costs of costs of prescription drugs, at no cost to the state.

The Ocean State is now posed to enact sound public policy that will result in no fiscal impact to state coffers.

If Congress is not ready to tackle this aging policy issue through the creation of a Medicare pharmaceutical benefit, then the Rhode Island General Assembly must take the lead and pass the three RIPAE proposals.

Simply put, it is the right thing to do on behalf of older and disabled constituents.

Beer Commercial Brews Condemnation from Senior Organizations, Advocates

Published in the Pawtucket Times on May 13, 2002

This Bud’s Not for You.”

That’s what radio commentator Bill Benson told his vast WMKV-FM listening audience in Cincinnati, Ohio, last July when he called for Anheuser-Bush to pull a radio commercial that used elder abuse to pitch Bud Ice beer.

Sadly, this month Bill Benson reported in is Washington Aging Report that Anheuser-Busch again has brewed “bad faith” with the showing of another trashy television commercial.

Last July, Benson rallied aging advocates from across the nation to successfully force Anheuser-Bush, the maker of Budweiser beer, to pull a controversial radio commercial off the air.

Benson – a former acting assistant secretary for aging at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who now heads the Maryland-based Benson Consulting Group- along with the AARP and aging advocates, condemned the St. Louis-based beer company for using ageism to sell its brews.

Last July, much to the surprise or Anheuser-Busch officials, wide-spread criticism erupted with the release of its advertising campaign, “She Married Steven Buck Simpson.”

The commercial featured a 22-year-old woman gleefully talking about how she physically, emotionally and financially abused her frail 93-year-old tycoon husband. Ultimately, the young woman leaves the country in her elder husband’s private jet taking away all his money.

Benson along with elder law attorneys, ombudsmen, and aging advocates, called the advertising campaign tacky, bombarding the station’s largest beer maker with calls, tells  letters and emails.

“Elder abuse is not a joking matter and your message to the country is inappropriate,” said AARP President Ester Canja in a letter sent to Anheuser-Busch CEO August A. Busch III.

When the dust settled this public relations fiasco, the commercial was quickly pulled.

But now a new television commercial has drawn the ire of Benson and his fellow aging advocates.

In a recent radio commentary, Paul Greenwood, who heads the Elder Abuse Prosecution Union at San Diego County’s District Attorney’s Office, told Benson of a commercial he viewed while watching a televised NBA basketball game on April 29 on TNT

Greenwood became annoyed when Anheuser-Busch ran a spot featuring young people ripping off vulnerable adults.

The offensive commercial began with a young couple seated on a dining room table with the aging parents of the young woman. The young man, evidently the daughter’s significant other tells her elderly parents that he and his daughter look forward to moving in and gaining the property when they die.  Then he apparently complements the elderly parents for still having “motor skills” and finishes by saying, “She tells me you are loaded.”

Every day Greenwood sees the impact of exploitation of older Americans, said Benson.  His unit has prosecuted 124 felony elder abuse cases in 2000, and 147 felony cases in 2001.  This year, the number of cases prosecuted may well reach 225. That’s why Greenwood got offended when the beer commercials trivialized the financial exploitation of the elderly.

Just as he did when the last commercial raised his ire. Benson put the spotlight on the new Anheuser-Busch spot, giving it a thumbs-down in his latest Washington Aging Report and calling on thousands of aging advocates , via the internet, to urge the company to drop the commercial.

At press time, Anheuser-Busch officials had no comment about the latest controversial ad campaign.

Maybe it is time for the beer maker to solicit proposals to seek the services of a new advertising firm, one that can create material that is both humorous and creative, yet not offensive.

At the very least, they should require the creative types who develop the company’s advertising strategies to attend sensitivity training seasons.

In his radio  commentary, Benson firmly stated “my taste buds will no longer taste Bud again.” With hundreds of thousands of aging advocates and seniors following his  lead Anheuser-Busch just might finally get it at least this time around.

The Best of…Before ‘Crossing Over,’ Leave a Legacy of Love

           Published May 6, 2002, Pawtucket Times

          Dead men (or women) tell no tales.

          That’s not true for millions of viewers who watch the syndicated hit series “Crossing Over” with John Edward.  The 31-year old internationally acclaimed m medium has touched the hearts and souls of the American public as he uses his uncanny mediumistic ability to connect audiences with their loved ones who have “crossed over.”

         Belive him or not, this show is making waves throughout southern New England, according to Judy Shoemaker, director of promotions for ABC 6.  The dead have something to say and Edward is listening to what they say, she noted.

       Attesting to the popularity of the show, 2,500 tickets costing $45 were sold out in just one hour after being made available for yesterday’s gathering at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

       Edward was the sponsor of the Providence event.  Before Sunday, tickets were sold on E-Bay, prices going for as high as $450 per ticket.

        Edward’s visit to the Renaissance City is the most anticipated promotional event that ABC 6 has sponsored in the last 30 years, noted Shoemaker.  The Providence-based television station on Orms Street – which now airs Edward’s one-hour show on weekdays at 4 p.m. – received hundreds of letters, emails and calls for the last several weeks from frantic fans wanting to go to the event.

        “This show has moved and touched so many people and it makes them feel good,” Shoemaker said, explaining why the show sold out so quickly.

        According to the Sci-Fi Channel, age 50-plus viewers watching “Crossing Over” represents 38 percent of the 503,000 viewers on late Monday-Thursday evenings and 30 percent of the 553,000 viewers of the program at its late Sunday night time slot.

       Rose O. Boucher, 84, a life-long Pawtucket resident, regularly tunes into “Crossing Over” on the Sci-Fi Channel and on ABC 6.  For her, Edward’s show “is educational and relaxing to watch,” she says. Boucher likes how it helps people who have worries and doubts.  Responding to Edward’s skeptics, she said, “There are a lot of things in the world that we don’t know about.”

       According to Edward, at age 15 he tried to debunk a psychic that was doing readings at his grandmother’s house. Going into his reading skeptical, Edward came out impressed with the psychic’s accuracy.

       “The information that came through was factual and not generalities,” Edward said, who noted that she even predicted that he would do the work if he chose to.

        Even with 16 years of studying psychic development and metaphysics, Edward never has forgotten his Catholic upbringing and he believes that it has even enhanced his own religious beliefs.

       While he does not attend church regularly, he is constantly praying with his rosary and doing his spiritual work.  “Using your rosary and saying a repetition of prayers significantly helps you raise your own vibration and frequency,” he says.

        “Everyone is psychic,” Edward said. “Be open to learning about spiritual development.  Go to a metaphysical bookstore or the new age section in a bookstore and let the book pick you.”

       Edward looks at death this way — “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, yet it can change forms.  I just look at death as a transition of the energy of the soul outside of the body.” Over the years, Edward said he has found that his readings have solidified and strengthened the religious beliefs of many people.

        Is there a heaven or hell? No, said Edward.  The other side is made up of different levels and you gravitate to the level appropriate to your spiritual growth.  “The higher more evolved levels might be deemed the heavenly levels while the lower levels are for people who are not so [spiritually advanced].

       Edward urges people to take the opportunity to communicate and validate others in their lives before they “cross over” so that a medium is not required to do it for them.

       Before you greet death, leave your legacy of love behind.  That’s what it is really all about, said the frequently humorous and down-to-earth medium.

       Leaving your legacy of love behind is as simple as looking your loved one in the eyes and saying, “I love you.”

       Herb Weiss is a Pawtucket-based freelance writer who covers aging, healthcare and medical issues.  This article was printed in the May 06, 2002 issue of the Pawtucket Times.