Older adults still worried, coping with COVID-19 Delta, poll shows

Published October 11, 2021 in RINewsToday

With the COVID-19 Delta variant numbers having surged across the nation, Joe (70) and Joyce (66), residing across the Rhode Island border in Seekonk, Massachusetts, continue to keep their distance from others, only seeing vaccinated friends and spending time with their daughter and her husband and grandchildren. During the first year of the pandemic, my friends pre-ordered their groceries and picked up the filled bags outside the store, where an employee quickly put the bags in their trunk. Now, this includes a quick 15-minute trip into the store, if necessary. They continue to not eat their meals in restaurants but will pick up their order curbside or eat outside.

Like my longtime friends, many older adults age 50 and over still remained concerned about this virus and continue to isolate themselves from others (especially those unvaccinated) and practice social distancing and wear their masks.

Still Feeling Socially Isolated

According to a newly released survey on Sept. 29, 2021, by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and funded by The SCAN Foundation, while a majority of adults age 50 or older see their quality of life, mental health, and satisfaction with social activities and relationships positively, they rarely, or never, feel socially isolated. But still, 18 months into the pandemic,1 in 3 still feel socially isolated at least sometimes. And 1 in 4 feels that their social life and relationships have gotten worse over the past year.

The poll survey includes 1,015 interviews with a nationally representative sample of adults age 50 and older living in America. Interviews were conducted between Aug. 20 and 23, 2021, via internet and phone, in English.

The research findings indicate that those older adults most worried about themselves or a loved one being infected by COVID-19 are most likely to practice social distancing, by avoiding travel, staying away from large groups of people, and wearing a mask. They are the ones most often experiencing feelings of social isolation. The researchers say that these people rate their quality of life, mental and emotional health, and social activities and relationships as worse than those less concerned about the virus.

The study’s findings indicate that being vaccinated does not provide the older persons with relief. Those who are vaccinated are more worried about infection from the virus, are more likely to practice social distancing, and are more likely to describe their mental health as worse than last year compared to those who are not vaccinated.

Touching Others Thru Video Chat and Social Media

To cope with isolation, older adults are using video chat and social media more often since the beginning of the pandemic as the frequency of activities like visiting with friends and family in person, doing volunteer work, attending religious services, and talking with neighbors have declined, the study’s findings indicate. And despite struggles with mental health and isolation, more report that their use of mental health services has declined (34%) than increased (6%).

In addition to the increasing use of technology to socialize, more older adults are using video chat, email, and other technology to receive health care remotely, say the researchers, noting that 63% have used telehealth at some point during the pandemic, up from 56% who had used it as of March 2021. Fifty-1% users expect to continue using it once the pandemic is over, too.

Still, adults age 50 and older are more optimistic than pessimistic that they will be able to fully return to their pre-pandemic activities in the next year, though 17% have already done so.

The results of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research can be found in “Long-Term Care in America: Coronavirus Worries and Social Isolation among Older Adults,” released on Sept. 2021.

End Filibuster and Use Federal Government to Secure Elections

Published in RINewsToday.com on October 4, 2021

The clock is ticking… It’s 399 days before the upcoming midterm elections.

Following the Democrats winning the White House and taking control of both the House and Senate chambers, Republican-controlled state houses across the nation moved quickly to pass restrictive legislation to block access to vote. The Republican lawmakers see this legislative strategy as a way to protect election integrity. On the other hand, Democrats say the Republican legislative efforts are in large part motivated by false voter fraud claims coming out of the 2020 elections that continue to this day.

According to the New York-based Brennan Center for Justice (BCJ), “between   and July 14 2021, at least 18 states enacted laws that restrict access for the vote. These laws make mail voting and early voting more difficult, impose harsher voter ID requirements, and make faulty voter purges more likely among other things.More than 400 bills with provisions that restrict voting access have been introduced in 49 states in the 2021 legislative sessions.”

“There may be more new state voting laws still to come this year. Active regular legislative sessions continue in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And Maine’s special legislative session is ongoing,” warns BCJ.

At the same time, more than 900 bills were dropped in the legislative hopper expanding voter access in 49 states during the 2021 legislative session, says BCJ, noting that at least, 25 states enacted 54 laws with provisions to expand voting access. These laws expanded access to early and mail voting, make voter registration easier, and restoring voting rights to Americans with past convictions.

Democratic lawmakers say Congress has the power to block Republican efforts at the state level to restrict access to voting.As of March 2021, the For the People Act passed by the House now awaits action in the Senate, and would reduce the impact of many state-level restrictions by creating new national standards for elections, while preventing common forms of voter suppression and easing access to voting. Democrats are also pushing for passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to protect voters by preventing discriminatory election laws from being implemented.

Safeguarding Ballot Access for Seniors

The Washington, DC-based National Committee to Protect Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM) along with 40 senior advocates and political influencers, call on Senators Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) to support changes to the filibuster to protect older Americans’ voting rights. So long as the moderate Senators oppose filibuster reform, Senate Democrats have no legislative path to enact S.1, For the People Act, legislative, passed by the House to ensure voting rights.  Under current Senate rules, Senate Republicans can block S.1 through a filibuster, a legislative procedure requiring a “supermajority” of 60 votes for passage.  Democrats need to pass filibuster reform to pass this legislation.

In a Sept. 21 letters to the two moderate Senators, NCPSSM President and CEO Max Richtman writes that adjusting the Senate filibuster is the only way to safeguard ballot access for seniors if enough Republican Senators won’t support new federal voting rights legislation.  Such legislation is necessary, says Richtman, because of restrictive, new state laws that infringe on seniors’ right to vote by mail.

“We urge you to support a narrow change to the filibuster rule to allow the Senate to approve new voting rights legislation by a simple majority vote. This crucial legislation will help to protect our democracy and the right to vote for all Americans, including older Arizonans who cast ballots by mail,” says Richtman. 

“Currently, seniors who are immobile, sick, or don’t want to risk being infected by the delta COVID variant can request mail ballots — along with those who cannot drive or lack access to mass transit,” says Richtman. “Voting by mail allows these older citizens to exercise their constitutional rights in a safe, convenient way. In 2020, the majority of voters over age 65 cast their ballots by mail.  Multiple studies have shown vote-by-mail to be consistently free of fraud,” he says.

Richtman urged Sinema and Minchin to support a narrow change to the filibuster rule to allow the Senate to approve S. 1, the For the People Act, by a simple majority vote. “This crucial legislation will help to protect our democracy and the right to vote for all Americans, including older Arizonans who depend on voting by mail,” he says.

According to Richtman, study findings note that vote-by-mail to be consistently free of fraud.  For instance, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study results show that  only 0.00006% of 250 million votes by mailed ballots nationwide were fraudulent. Additionally, scholars at Stanford University analyzing 1996-2018 data in California, Utah and Washington found vote-by-mail did not advantage one political party over another, he said.

During the 2020 elections, many seniors chose to vote-by-mail to exercise their right to vote, more important to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Richtman, noting that 41% of voters age 50-64 and 55% of voters over age 65 voted by mail in the 2020 election. 

“The safety and convenience of this method of voting is likely to prove equally effective in future elections – unless state legislatures decide to obstruct voting by mail,” adds Richtman.

Richtman said, “Given the advantages and encouraging results of the nation’s vote-by-mail experience, and the paucity of evidence of voter fraud, we question why so many states are moving in the opposite direction – to discourage vote-by-mail.”

Ensuring Voter Access Once and For All

“The For the People Act would protect all Americans from new state voter suppression laws by setting national mail-in voting standards and guaranteeing no-excuse mail-in voting,” says Richtman, noting that  S. 1 requires states to give every voter the option to vote by mail, calls for prepaid postage for all election materials and state-provided drop boxes for federal races.

Fixing rising pharmaceutical drug costs once and for all

Published in RI News Today on September 27, 2021

Just days ago, WBUR.org, Boston’s NPR News Station, featuring NPR News and Programs, aired a 45.37 minute program, “Steps to Fix America’s Broken Prescription Drug System,”  clearly illustrating the need to fix America’s ailing prescription drug program.  While Americans are traveling to Mexico in search of affordable prescription drugs, referred to as “Pharmaceutical Tourism,” the NPR program added a new twist. Now some state insurance companies are sending their beneficiaries to Mexico to purchase cheaper their pharmaceuticals manufactured in the United States at a lower price, on their tab.  

For instance, let’s take a look at Ann Lovell, of  Salt Lake City, Utah. The NPR Program, aired on Sept. 24, 2021, introduced us to the hearing-impaired former teacher who worked at an early-intervention program for deaf students that’s part of the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind, who traveled from Utah to Mexico five times to purchase Enbrel, to treat rheumatoid arthritis, with travel costs and a $500 cash incentive paid by her insurer, the Public Employees Health Program (PEHP). 

Lovell’s Utah physician writes her a prescription, and each tie she travels to Mexico she sees a physician at the Tijuana-based hospital as well.  She updates the physician on her medical condition, gets her prescription, and takes it to the pharmacist, who gives her the medication. 

NPR’s program noted that the Utah initiative was created under a 2018 state law, “Right to Buy,” by Republican Congressman Norm Thurston.  PEHP offers it only for people who use a drug on a list of about a dozen medications were the state can see significant savings.  Of the 150,000 state and local public employees covered by the insurer, fewer than 400 are eligible to participate.

Responding to a tweet promoting the offer, Levell quickly enrolled for as they say an offer she could not refuse.  She and a companion would travel on an all-expenses paid trip from Utah to Tijuana, Mexico to pick buy her pharmaceuticals at a steep discount paid for by the state of Utah’s public insurer to slash the high cost of prescription drugs. PEHP would only have to pay half of the cost of Embrel versus if Levell got it in the United States, saving tens of thousands of dollars. The annual U.S. list price for the drug, Enbrel, is over $62,000 per patient. 

It was one long, exhausting travel day.  At 5:00 a.m., Lovell and her friend flew from Salt Lake City to San Diego.  There, an escort picked them up and took them across the boarder to a Tijuana hospital, where she got a refill on her prescription.  After that, they were shuttled back to the airport and arrived back home by midnight. 

Lovell said she initially began paying $50 a month for her pharmaceutical, increasing to $450 in co-pays.  It would have increased up to $2,500 if she hadn’t started traveling to Mexico.  Without the program, she would not be able to afford the medicine she needed

With the COVID-19 pandemic closing the borders, PEHP’s “Pharmaceutical Tourism” initiative came to an end with the borders closing.   Lovell’s insurer came up with a new option of getting Enbrel at lower cost.  That’s when Lovell was told about the drug manufacturer’s coo-pay program where she would only have to pay five dollars a month.  

Calls for Medicare Negotiating the Cost of Pharmaceuticals 

Although traveling to Mexico or Canada to purchase more affordable pharmaceuticals is a temporary fix, the Washington, DC-based AARP calls for a permanent solution.  The national AARP advocacy group has launched a $4 million ad buy calling Medicare to step in to lowering the spiraling costs of pharmaceuticals.  

The Washington, DC-AARP noted that a recent AARP survey of voters found that 80% agreed or strongly agreed that drug prices could be lowered without harming innovation of new medicines. Strong majorities of voters, regardless of political affiliation, want Congress to act on the issue this year, with 70% saying it is very important. The survey also found that 87% of voters support allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. 

AARP’s full-scale ad campaign blitz, including a $4 million ad buy, pushing back on false claims from the pharmaceutical industry that reforms would limit Americans’ access to medicines. AARP has called for fair drug prices for years and is urging Congress to pass legislation that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, put a cap on out-of-pocket costs that older adults pay for their prescription drugs and impose penalties on drug companies that raise prices faster than the rate of inflation.

AARP’s new national ad campaign points out that Americans’ tax dollars subsidize new drug development even as Big Pharma charges Americans dramatically higher drug prices. The ad goes on to urge Congress to “stop the Big Pharma scam. Let Medicare negotiate drug prices.” Beginning tomorrow, it will air nationally on MSNBC and CNN; and in the DC metro area on the Sunday political shows and local radio stations, as well as on digital platforms including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and Politico. In addition to paid advertising, AARP members began taking part in grassroots action beginning September 20. A social media campaign calling for older adults to #ShowYourReceipts has led thousands to share their monthly medication costs with AARP, with their monthly “bills” now running over $11 million.

“Americans are fed up with paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs,” said Nancy LeaMond, AARP Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy & Engagement Officer in a Sept. 17, 2021 statement announcing this advertising campaign. “Our 38 million members are watching and they are counting on their members of Congress to do what’s right and vote to let Medicare negotiate for lower drug prices.”

Now, Congress Must Act…

Congress is currently debating measures to rein in the cost of prescription drugs, and the House Ways & Means Committee advanced legislation this week that includes many of AARP’s priorities on fair drug prices.