Tag Archives for Bill NOvelli

AARP Works to Get the Vote Out

Published in the Pawtucket Times on October  21, 2002

AARP is flexing its political muscle.

While it’s not endorsing political candidates from either the Republican and Democratic ranks, one of the nation’s largest membership groups is moving swiftly to educate its members on key aging issues and directing  resources to get the vote out on Election Day.

AARP CEO Bill Novelli has begun the mobilization of his 35 million-plus members to hold all political candidates accountable in the upcoming elections. With the bipartisan gridlock that keeps a law from being enacted to lower skyrocketing drug costs and to provide drug coverage in Medicare, Novelli and his aging rank and file are just plan tired of promises. I can just imagine hearing him shout from AARP headquarters in Washington, D.C. “We are not going to take it anymore!”

This month, AARP begins to take steps to prod the political candidates to become more responsive to aging issues before Nov. 5 elections.

Over the next two weeks, AARP will begin a first-ever national voter education campaign on television. Aimed at voters age 50 and over, the advertising campaign’s get-out-the-vote message calls for the need of a Medicare drug benefit and the importance of Social Security to seniors.

On the issue of Social Security, the message says: “After all you’ve done to earn a paycheck, make sure some of it will be there when you retire. Know where the candidates stand on the future of Social Security and vote.”

Meanwhile, 50 candidate forums, like the one recently held in Warwick by AARP Rhode Island have already been held to enable older votes to directly question local candidates. AARP plans to hold an additional 20 events before Nov 5.

Here’s the rationale for AARP hosting the forums – seniors want detailed information and no longer want to learn about a candidate’s position and priorities in a 30-second sound bite or in a paragraph on a glossy campaign brochure.

Additionally, all congressional candidates will be asked to sign a new Medicare prescription pledge, promising that if they are elected, they will enact a benefit that is voluntary, stable and affordable in 2003.

A warning to the incoming politicians – keep your word. The names of candidates who do – and don’t- agree to sign this Medicare drug pledge will be made public, too.

More that 8.5 million AARP voter guides will be printed, detailing up-to-date information where candidates stand on senior issues. Localized election information on state and national races nationwide will also be made available on a comprehensive website  at http:/www.aarp.org/elections2002.

AARP will even fund Election Day polling, where voters in selected districts will be asked about the defining issues that influenced their votes. The results of this polling will signal to those  elected to Congress what priorities they will face when they begin their new terms in January 2003.

Finally, phone banks where an estimated 500,000 telephone calls will be made will assist AARP’s efforts to get out the vote on Election Day.

If AARP is successful in getting its political savvy and educated membership to the polls, political candidates had better listen to their concerns.

“Older voters participate in elections at a higher rate than any age group,” said AARP Director of Grassroots and Elections Kevin Donnellan, noting that the mid-term elections, where overall voter numbers are low, the percentage senior voting is higher.

Furthermore, Donnellan said in the 1998 mid-term elections, more than 60 percent of the voters were 45 and older. More than 70 percent of AARP members typically vote, he added.

AARP grassroots efforts might even become a factor in tight races, specifically deciding who goes to Washington and who stays at home, Donnellan says.

“Now that we are down to the wire to Election Day, AARP Rhode Island joins AARP nationally to urge Rhode Island seniors to demonstrate once again that they are the most dependable and consistent group of voters,” says Kathleen S. Connell, state director of AARP Rhode Island told All About Seniors.

“It is important that seniors exercise the power of the ballot box to convey the message that the time for action is now,” adds Connell.

The political fate of gubernatorial, congressional and state-wide candidates may well rest in the hands of AARP Rhode Island, which is now mobilizing its 125,000 members to get out and vote next month.

Combine the successful Senior Agenda/Election 2002 Project, recently spearheaded by the Gray Panthers of Rhode Island, working in collaboration with the Rhode Island Minority Elder Task Force, and hundreds of thousands of Ocean State seniors have become a knowledgeable and educated voter block.

Understanding the immediate and future needs of Rhode Island seniors may well become the ticket to statewide or national office inside the Capitol Beltway, when the dust settles after the  Nov. 5 election.

Today’s Seniors are Healthier, But More Are Uninsured

Published in Pawtucket Times on May 27, 2002

Three years ago, Alice, 60, lost her job as a graphic designer along with 143 co-workers when the Providence-based company closed. Corporate management had made the decision to  move South to tap into a cheaper labor pool.

The Pawtucket resident considered her full-time job to be a fulfilling one. Most important, she had good health insurance coverage with a very nominal monthly cop-pay of $ 80. Although she received coverage under COBRA, Alice’s monthly health care premium shot up to $ 256. When the federally mandated health insurance coverage ended, her monthly health insurance premium almost double to $ 600.

Alice never went back to full-time employment, choosing to take partial retirement in order to collect a pension. To make ends meet, she is currently teaching art classes and working part-time for a nonprofit art group. When her COBRA coverage ran out, Alice signed up for health insurance coverage from the National Association of Self-Employed. This reduced her monthly premium to $ 253; however she was left with a $ 10,000 deductible per year.

At age 60, Alice recently had a hip replacement surgery. Before the operation, the hospital required a $ 5,000 down payment, forcing her to withdraw money from her several saving accounts. Now recuperating from surgery that costs more than $ 10,000, she is about $ 5,000 in debt.

According to a new AARP report, seniors age 50 and over may be healthier and living longer overall, but their long-term health security remains at risk. In the Ocean State, Alice and other seniors have lived the findings of the report. They struggle to maintain their costly health insurance  coverage.

The report, “Beyond 50: A Report to the Nation on Trends in Health Security” is the most comprehensive picture to date of the state of health care for older Americans.

Changes in health security during the last 20 years have been driven by increased reliance on prescription drugs and other innovative technologies, changes in chronic disease and challenges in chronic care, greater longevity and functional limitations patients’ roles and responsibilities as consumers and fluctuating cost growth, the AARP report finds.

“Americans age 50-plus have the chance to capitalize on wonderful advances in longevity. But they need a chain of dominoes to fall right – initial good health, adequate health care coverage, affordable quality care that’s easy to access and a system that encourages informed decision making,” said AARP CEO Bill Novelli.

“Missing one of these dominoes puts a person’s – and a generations – whole health security at risk,” says Novelli.

At age 50, Americans can expect to live another 30 years, the report notes, almost nine years longer than expected in 1900, and fewer are suffering disabilities. The aging baby boomers are healthier with fewer smoking and more using preventative services and trying to exercise.

The AARP report also found that more people age 50-64 are uninsured than in the past and those with insurance are worried about losing what coverage they have or receiving fewer benefits in the future because Medicare doesn’t cover prescription drugs and few Americans have long-term care insurance.

“It’s a good news/bad news report,” said Novelli. “Personal behavior can make a positive difference in people’s health and longevity, but health care for Americans age 50-plus is harder to get, to pay for and to manage. The health care system is a non-system.”

The AARP report calls for the public health system to continue to promote positive health behaviors.

In addition, the general lack of long-term care coverage and the increasing inadequacy and instability of health care coverage for portions of the 50-plus population must be addressed by policy makers.

In 2000, 39 million Americans were uninsured. Out of this number, 5.2 million were seniors between  ages 50 to 64. With the graying of America’s population, the Rhode Island congressional delegation must work closely together to craft meaningful legislation that will create a safety net for the underinsured and uninsured. It’s now time to fix this long-debated policy problem once and for all.

Every senior must have access to affordable health care services. For me, that right is as American as apple pie.