By Aleasha Sandley, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
ANDERSON, Ind. — National health care reform is important for senior citizens, according to one health care activist, and a recently passed House bill is a good start.
Indiana AARP Director June Lyle said the bill, passed through the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 7, offered some important steps for seniors. AARP serves two group of seniors: those age 50-64 and those over age 65 who receive Medicare benefits.
“As this health care debate has been heating up, we have been fighting for both groups of our members,” Lyle said.
The AARP has dealt with patients such as a woman with a heart condition who couldn’t get health insurance because of her pre-existing condition and another woman whose Medicare Part D did not pay for her prescription drugs because she fell in the “doughnut hole,” where her coverage had run out and she had not yet reached the catastrophic coverage threshold.
“From our standpoint, that’s not the way it should be in Indiana,” Lyle said. “That’s not the way it should be in the United States of America. AARP was bound and determined that we need to close the Medicare doughnut hole for prescription drugs.”
Lyle, who was one of four panelists to speak at an Anderson Triad meeting on health care Thursday, said the health reform act that passed the House closed the doughnut hole, banned discrimination by insurance companies for people with pre-existing conditions or on the basis of gender and set limits on charging for health insurance based on age.
All those measures, she said, were important for seniors. The bill also strengthens long-term care options and protects Medicare, Lyle said.
“AARP took a look at the House bill and we liked what we saw,” she said. “AARP would not support any legislation that would cut your Medicare benefits.”
Another panelist, Indiana President of United Senior Action James Wallihan, wasn’t quite as happy with the bill, saying it didn’t offer enough of a public option. The public option has been a source of contention among legislators and would allow people to choose a insurance plan provided by the federal government that would compete with private plans.
“What’s come out now is not a robust public option in the House bill,” Wallihan said. “We need to push to get the public option pumped up. We’re going to have to push harder to get something in there that makes the private insurance industry honest.”
Wallihan said the private insurance industry is contradictory because it says the industry is based on pooled risk when in fact insurance companies try to break up the risk by sectioning people into groups, such as those who are senior citizens and those who are sick.
“Each of us is going to end up paying our own individual risk pool,” he said.
Katie Humphreys, system vice president for public policy and advocacy at St. Vincent Health System, said Ascension Health was trying to advocate for health care access for all. Ascension Health is a national Catholic health ministry.
“We want to make sure that those (unemployed), as well as the chronically uninsured, have access to health care,” Humphreys said. “We have to begin to deal with the cost of health insurance and the availability of health insurance.”
Elmer Blankenship, president of the Indiana Alliance for Retired Americans, said the country had been debating a public health care system since Teddy Roosevelt was president.
“Now, we’re closer than we’ve ever been,” he said. “Nov. 7 was the first time either house (of Congress) passed a bill that would affect health care for all Americans. I’m embarrassed that we’re the only industrialized country that doesn’t offer it to all our citizens.”
The bill allows the negotiation of drug prices, and Blankenship said it would help protect retirees of companies such as General Motors that have been going through hard times and cutting benefits.
“We need this bill to assure that if our companies go bankrupt, move to Mexico and leave us, we’ll be covered,” he said.
Triad Chairman Dennis Lanane said misrepresentation on television interfered with his goal of educating seniors on what the health care bill is really about.
“There’s people that are going through some terrible things because they can’t afford health insurance,” he said. “Something’s got to stop. We’ve got to quit letting people go.”
What’s next?
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has set an initial test vote for Saturday evening on the Senate version of a health care overhaul. A 60-vote majority is required to advance the bill to a full debate, which likely would begin after Thanksgiving.
Contact Aleasha Sandley: 640-4805, aleasha.sandley@heraldbulletin.com.
