Tag Archives for Congressman Patrick Kennedy

Delegates Head to D.C.

Published in Senior Digest on December 2005

Forty-seven years ago, Rhode Island Congressman John Fogarty successfully pushed legislation through Congress to create a national conference on aging issues. As a result of his forethought, the fifth White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) will be held this month.

Scheduled every 10 years this nationwide citizens’ forum focuses public attention on aging issues and consolidates all the policy recommendations originating from the WHOCoA into a report sent to the president and Congress.

According to WHCoA staff, leading up to this conference scheduled for Dec. 11-14, there have been approximately 400 local, state and national events held across the nation, involving more than 130,000 people. The events included WHCoA listening sessions, solution forums, mini-conferences and independent aging agenda events.

The theme for the 2005 WHCoA is “The Booming Dynamics of Aging: From Awareness to Action.” The them reflects the changing face of aging in America. The conference, mandated by the Older Americans Act, focuses on the interests and needs of current seniors as well as the 78 million baby boomers who will begin to turn 60 in 2006. (Rhode Island is home to more than 152,000 seniors who are 65 and older and has the sixth highest concentration of people in this age category in the nation).

Corinne Calise Russo, director of the state Department of Elderly Affairs (DEA) said her staff gathered information about the concerns of seniors by conducting listening sessions during May and June to in Newport, Cranston, Wakefield and Woonsocket.  Russo said 150 seniors attended.

There were seven members of the Rhode Island delegation attending the WHCoA. Russo was appointed to attend the upcoming conference by Gov. Donald Carcieri. She said her experience as a 1995 delegate was “very exciting” and that she is looking forward to going back to D.C>

Other delegates are: Kathleen Connell, director of AARP Rhode Island appointed by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed; Joan Crawley, director of the Leon A. Mathieu Senior Center in Pawtucket appointed by Congressman Patrick Kennedy :William Finelli, a retired teacher and librarian appointed by appointed by U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee; Ann Gardella, chairwoman of the state Commission on Aging appointed by Gov. Carcieri;  Angelo Rotella, chairman of the American Health Care Association and a nursing home owner, appointed by Congressman James Langevin; and Dr. Terrie Fox Wetle, associate dean for public health and policy at Brown Unversity and policy at Brown University; appointed by WHCoA officials.

According to Russo, the grassroots input gathered at the four listening sessions was hammered out into nine policy recommendations at a resolution development workshop in September. The 12-page  document was forwarded to the WHCoA policy committee charged with planning the agenda for the conference. That committee will bring 50  resolutions gathered from pre-WHCoA events to the conference floor for a vote.

“The submitted resolutions would have to impact the largest number of seniors and also translate into issues that would affect a large number of baby boomers,” Russo noted.  She believes that some of Rhode Island’s resolutions have a good chance of being selected for consideration by the delegates.

“It is probably the one opportunity in a 10-year period of time that local advocates and seniors from Rhode Island can provide input that could become national policy that could effect future generations of seniors,” the DEA director said.

Russo says that it is important to plan for future generations of people who will choose to remain at home for the rest of their lives. She noted that the No. 1 priority that came out of Rhode Island’s listening sessions was the need to provide for a continuum of care to keep older persons in the community.

Other resolutions include a call for increased access to employment opportunities for seniors, supporting caregivers, adequate funding for chronic disease management programs with an emphasis on prevention and maintaining the independence of older disabled adults by providing programs and services to allow them to successfully “age in place.”

In 1995, the number of delegates was almost double the umber that will be attending the 2005 WHCoA. But Russo has no concerns that this reduction of delegates will diminish seniors’ input and the quality of recommendations that come out of the conference. “Every state this year was concerned with the reduction of delegates,” she said, noting that what it ultimately did was provide the opportunity to gain input form older people and baby boomers via the listening sessions.

Connell does not believe that the WHCoA report will sit on a dusty shelf in federal agencies or in the offices of bureaucrats.

“Much of the future policy direction of the country will be affected by this final report. Because of this, the report carriers the weight of its congressional mandate,” she said.

State Wants its Resolution Debated in Washington

The state Department of Elderly Affairs (DEA) submitted nine resolutions to the White House Conference on Aging Policy Committee. It is hoped that the Policy Committee will recommend some of the resolutions for consideration during the conference. The resolution for national policies that:

  1. Establish standards for Medicaid coverage of both facility-based and community-based services; long-term care insurance portability; incentives for excellent care; federal support for assisted technology; an aggressive campaign to educate employers, caregivers and the public about community-based health care and social service options; state and federal coordination of services.
  2. Encourage employees through incentives to: hire and retain older workers; offer flexible work schedules; allow older workers to buy into benefits and adopt attitudes that value the older workers.
  3. Support proactive and informed retirement and long-term care planning for seniors and caregivers, including tax incentives for professionals who look after or provide services to the elderly.
  4. Establish comprehensive care programs for diverse elders, including education about prevention; accessible immunizations, screenings and treatments without regard to ability to pay; nontraditional culture-specific treatments; culturally sensitive end of life care; and an initiative to require that cultural proficiency be included in basic medical education.
  5. Encourage a proactive approach to the conversation within families regarding the preferences and responsibilities of care giving; mandate the Family Medical Leave Act for all workplaces; support caregivers through tax breaks and other financial incentives; design services that are more sensitive to the needs of caregivers.
  6. Promote flexibility and innovation in services, provide adequate same-day urgent medical transportation; support volunteer driver programs; expand community options such as delivery services and coordinated group trips to consumer destinations; and improve coordination of exiting public transportation.
  7. Address education about healthy lifestyles , which government should support along with chronic disease management. The support should include subsidized gym members and  home adaptation.
  8. Form a task force to review and revise standards of the Adults with Disabilities Act (ADA) to more closely reflect the needs of disabled adults; promote aggressive publicity and posting of ADA standards.
  9. Develop a response to housing needs for the next three decades that will include education of caregivers and baby boomers about housing options and the need for long-term financial planning; incentives for universal design to support aging in place, proximity to services; a commitment to esthetics and opportunities for social interaction.

Aging Programs Get Slashed in Bush’s War Budget

Published in Pawtucket Times on February 18, 2002

In the shadow of the horrific terrorist attacks on Sept. 11th, domestic programs take the backseat in President Bush’s $ 2.13 trillion fiscal year 2003 budget, released in early February, with significant funding increases being targeted for both military and  homeland defense.

As 77 million baby boomers approach their 65th birthdays within the next decade, aging groups say the President’s wartime budget does not go far enough in many areas to meet the aging baby boomer’s needs in the coming years.

One of the most hotly debated Congressional issues is affordable prescription drugs. With the Congressional election looming next year, this is certain to be a key issue in every state. Don’t look for this issue to lose importance to seniors or to the aging groups who call for meaningful Medicare drug benefits.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, over the next 10 years, Medicare beneficiaries will spend about $1.6 trillion out-of-pocket on prescription drugs. But the recently released Bush budget proposal only contains $ 190 billion over 10 years for Medicare reform, including $ 77 billion to assist seniors with prescription drugs.

The National Council on Aging (NCOA), a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, estimates that on average, the Bush administration’s proposal would cover less than one out of 10 dollars spend on drugs by seniors.

Martha A. McSteen, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, agreed that Bush’s budget proposal shortchanges seniors and the disabled in providing needed health care and services.

In his State of the Union address, the president restated his campaign promise to provide prescription drug coverage for every senior, noted McSteen, who added, “That is an empty promise if the budget does not contain these needed resources.

“At least $ 450 billion is needed over the next 10 years to provide a comprehensive and affordable prescription drug benefit as part of the Medicare program,” McSteen says.

John Rother, AARP’s Policy and Strategy Director, said, “Although federal budget constraints are greater than last year, so too is the need for affordable prescription drugs for Americans age 65 and over. Unfortunately, disease and pain did not disappear with the budget surplus.”

However, U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-Rhode Island, said he believes the President’s budget request recognizes the precarious state of the Medicare system, as well as other challenges faced by the nation’s seniors.

“The president has acknowledged the need for a Medicare prescription drug benefit as well as [the need] for a significant increase in funding for disease research conducted by the National Institutes of Health,” he said.

While Chafee said he will push for legislation that will create more comprehensive Medicare prescription drug benefits than the legislation proposed by the president, he warned the deficit created by the combination of the economic slowdown, the war on terrorism and last year’s tax cut will make enactment of any new spending programs more difficult to accomplish.

Meanwhile, programs under the Older Americans Act, are provided with less funding in Bush’s budget proposal than they were last year.

“Around the country, people are on waiting lists for meals-on-wheels programs and congregate meals programs,” said McSteen.

“There are state and local programs that need additional federal funds to counter the increasing problems of elder abuse. The administration’s funding request for these programs is woefully inadequate.”

Other federal programs get sliced and diced under the Bush administration’s FY 2003 budget, according to U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-Rhode Island, who pointed to an 8 percent cut for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s budget for chronic care.

The four-term Congressman and member of the House Aging Caucus said he finds this cut troubling due to the significant gains that have been made in efforts to prevent and treat diseases that effect an aging population.

With a growing number of families caring or loved ones with Alzheimer’s Disease, Kennedy said he strongly opposes the Bush administration’s axing of the Missing Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Alert Program, which helps protect and locate missing patients with the devastating disease.

The program has assisted in the return of more that 5,700 wanderers and increased its data base to 67,000 persons with Alzheimer’s,” said Kennedy. “It has succeeded in its many efforts on a budget of $ 898,000 in fiscal year 2002.”

While prescription drugs comes up a loser in the Bush budget, some aging initiatives are clearly on the White House’s radar screen.

Bush’s budget proposal provides about $ 3 billion in additional funds toward research and is the final installment in a five-year effort to double the size of the National Institute of Health budget, says McSteen. She said she believes increased federal funding would assist in “producing breakthroughs in the prevention, treatment, management of conditions associated with aging.”

The Administration’s budget also provides a personal exemption to home caretakers of family members and the funding of respite and direct care worker demonstration projects.

Now Bush’s Budget proposal moves to Congress, where a Republican-controlled House and Democratic Senate will make major revisions, ultimately hammering out a final road map to federal spending.

The funding of federal programs to meet the needs of older Americans is crucial as our nation’s population ages.

Furthermore, with an increasing federal budget deficit, Republican and Democratic lawmakers must not get tied down to partisan wrangling as they attempt to iron out differences in creating a Medicare benefit to make prescription rugs more affordable to seniors.

As the Congressional elections get closer, seniors will call for concrete legislative action, not political rhetoric or fancy words.

Kennedy Must Lead Fight Against Medicare HMO rate Hikes

Published in the Pawtucket Times on November 19, 2001

Across the nation, seniors who enrolled in Medicare HMOs are getting hit hard in the pocket book. Premiums and co-pays for hospital care, nursing services and prescription drugs are skyrocketing. Complaining about the inadequate federal funding offered to provide health care services to seniors, a growing number of Medicare HMOs are opting out of the program, leaving their senior enrollees high and dry.

In Rhode Island, seniors are also seeing this alarming trend. Last year, United Healthcare discontinued its Medicare Plus Choice program, first in Newport County, then in Bristol County. Now Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island BCBSRI) informs its seniors that higher premiums and copays come net year for two of their three BlueCHiP for Medicare plans. The increases include prescription drugs, inpatient care, skilled nursing services and more.  The added out-of-project costs impact about 41,000 seniors across the state.

However, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) is not buying  BlueCHiPs request for rate increases.

In a strongly worded letter to Tom Scully, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency charged with overseeing the Medicare program, the Rhode Island congressman strongly protested the rate hikes.

He called on the federal official to investigate whether the current market for Medicare HMOs in Rhode Island has created a situation where the types of increases charged by BCBSRI are more likely to occur and be approved.

Furthermore, he requested a review to determine if the increases are actuarially sound.

Scott Fraser, BCBSRI spokesperson, acknowledges that the premium increases of the two BlueCHiP plans were the result of higher medical costs passed onto the BlueCHiP plans by hospitals and other medical providers. “It’s medical inflation,” he quips, adding that even higher medication costs charged by drug companies has resulted in an increase in drug copays.

Even with next year’s increases, the BlueCHiP plans will not increase the premiums for the most commonly used services, specifically physician visits, laboratory tests and X-ray services, Fraser adds.  “These co-pays have been the same for the last three years,” he says.

CMS has reviewed BCBS’s application for the changes in rates and benefits over the summer, says Fraser, adding that the rate increases were given a thumbs up by the feds.

Are BCBSRI’s rate increases actually sound, thus justifiable?

CMS spokesperson Peter Ashkenaz told All About Seniors “the fact that the request has been approved by CMS speaks for itself. If the costs seem to be higher than what would be  paid for in fee-for-service Medicare, we would have questioned them.”

Ed Zesk, president of Aging 2000, a non-profit consumer advocacy group, believes that Rep. Kennedy has asked the right questions in his letter to CMS, specifically, “Are these premium and deductible increases justifiable.”

“Consumers just don’t have access to that type of information,” Zesk said.

With Medicare reforms now on the back burner as the nation gears up to fight terrorism, Rep. Kennedy must use his position on the House Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education to address the rising out-of-pocket health care costs for Medicare HMO enrollees.  As the Congressional elections approach, seniors will want to see concrete congressional action, leading to meaningful Medicare reform.