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Association of
Ameritech/SBC Retirees
Dear AASBCR Members:
As theVice President-Legislation of the Association of Ameritech/SBC Retirees, Inc, I recently wrote a letter to President George W. Bush expressing my frustration with what I felt was a lack of understanding and commitment by the President (and members of Congress) to address the issues concerning the welfare of today’s and tomorrow’s retirees and senior citizens. I did so in response to the President’s visit to Columbus, Ohio on February 15, 2006 where he talked about healthcare and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).
While some might feel that my comments appeared to border on contempt for the institutions of our government, I don’t believe that they did. Rather my frustration stemmed from a concern that America needs a definitive and comprehensive plan from the President to deal with the various ills that we have from Healthcare within these United States and that the President’s plan just didn’t measure up. My belief is that our elected officials must also actively and honestly deal with the problems confronting society today. This includes topics such as healthcare; pension reform; and the like so that you and I and even our children can live a decent life in our and their senior years. In summary, my frustration deals with the appearance that our Washington establishment just doesn’t seem to be getting the message.
Our President and our elected officials in Washington could take decisive action and enact the laws necessary to improve society’s problems for those who have fought for our country, raised children to be decent citizens and invested in America to keep our economy strong. They could develop a viable plan but they haven’t. While I continue hope that they will, it appears that they just don’t seem willing or up to the task. From what I see now, retirees and our children as future retirees, as they gaze upon their later years, will see nothing but broken corporate promises and government indifference to concerns of the average American. I’m speaking of issues such as retiree healthcare insurance cost increases that are skyrocketing providing windfall corporate profits; drug costs that seem to be out of sight and an economic goldmine to big pharmaceutical companies; the elimination of earned retiree pensions by big businesses who seem to be reaping large tax decreases and large profits;; or, just in general, seniors increased costs of living due to things such as higher food, gas or electric price that are causing havoc in everyday living for the average American.
My message to the President was one of a challenge for him (and Congress) to seek real solutions to the real problems of the American people and specifically those retirees that have made the country what it is today. What I neglected to give the President were suggested actions that he could take in order to help retirees.
As active members of the AASBCR, I urge you all to consider some of these plan options and, if you feel as strongly about the Healthcare issues as I do, I hope that you will write to the President and your elected officials in Washington as I have and will continue to do to have them address these issues in a bi-partisan and open manner. The only way to change the way things get done in Washington is to speak up. TAKE ACTION AND WRITE TO THE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. Currently only loud lobbyists are being heard.
These are but a few suggestions. While I’m sure there are more, I’d say doing these things would be a good beginning. I appreciate your reading this letter and I look forward to hearing from each of you what you think should be done in Congress on your behalf.
You too can speak up. Use the attached sample letter or go to the aasbcr website where a copy of this letter resides. You can click on “How to contact your elected officials” and tell the President and members of Congress that you too feel that Healthcare problems for retirees in America should be fixed. You can cut and paste the letter with any changes that you wish to make and enter into the web mail text form box for the President or your representatives.
Sincerely,
Raymond F. Sternot VP- Legislation AASBCR
Sample Letter to your Senator/Congressmen
[If you use the AASBCR site access to the Congress.org CAPWIZ site e-mail, you only need to copy and paste the body of the letter into the document. If you write a letter and send it via regular mail, you would want to put the following information on the letter.]
AGAIN – DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME IN THE TEXT SECTION IF YOU USE CONGRESS.ORG CAPWIZ E-MAIL DELIVERY SYSTEM
Your Name Your Address Your City, State ZIP
The Honorable [Senator Name or Congressman’s Name] [Senator’s or Congressman’s Address - (obtained by going to the AASBCR website and clicking on how to find your representatives)]
---RIMINDER— -----Entries above this line not required usingAASBCR access to the CAPWIZ site e-mail--
Dear [Senator/Congressman]
I am writing to you about the President’s healthcare HSA plan that he delivered in a speech in Columbus, Ohio on February 15, 2006 where he extolled the benefits of HSAs as a means to provide affordable healthcare to Americans. As a retiree and member of the Association of Ameritech/SBC Retirees, I do not agree with the President’s HSA plan. The reason that I don’t agree with it is that the President’s plan because it fails to address the type of actions that I, in addition to supporting HSAs, think are necessary to even begin to solve the healthcare cost issues for retirees or seniors.
Here are some of the items that I’m asking you, and the President, to consider as a means to lowering healthcare costs for retirees/seniors:
- Allow retirees to move 401k/IRA dollars into an HSA account. The much heralded HSAs have limited value to retirees under 65 and are not permitted for Medicare recipients those over 65. Yet retirees under 65 and Medicare recipients are now being required to pay the same high deductible costs of the new “incentive based” health care plans offered by their companies. The President’s plan does not address how retirees or those over 65 on their fixed income might fund them
- Companies should no longer be able to disadvantage retirees by establishing multiple health insurance pools between active employees and their retirees, and, at the same time, benefit from the Medicare drug plan. Use incentives to encourage pooling or enact penalties if they don’t. For example, take Medicare prescription dollars away from companies who push costs to retirees and, ultimately, on to the government. (The use of insurance pools spreads risks. Segregating pools increases risks (and costs) for pool participants. Pushing cost increases to retirees pushes more costs on to the general public as retirees will opt eventually to go to some other insurance plan, if possible.)
- Make all retiree medical costs a credit on retiree income taxes versus keeping it as a limited deduction.
- Allow ALL over the counter drug costs to be deducted on taxes. (Many prescription drugs are now over the counter. The cost hasn’t been reduced. The drugs are just no longer covered under a retiree insurance plan. And, again, not all retirees can fund an HSA.) - - Sponsor and help promote the passing in Congress a safe drug re-importation bill so that today’s senior citizens aren’t saddled with the abnormally high costs of prescription drugs that are contributing to the ever increasing cost of healthcare. Allow seniors an opportunity to legally purchase drugs at the discounted international prices. Go down to the Mexican border and watch seniors cross it to purchase their medicines. It is ironic that while we see illegal aliens come here, our moms and dads are going there so they can afford to remain healthy and solvent.
- Allow business employers to pool with small business employer healthcare plans to achieve economies of scale when dealing with insurance providers or plan administrators. (Don’t large insurers need the competition?)
- Require doctors to advertise the charge (price) for their services. All plan participants, including retirees via their company sponsored fiduciaries, can then negotiate with doctors for necessary service relative to quality of service at the right price. (Wouldn’t the knowledge of competitive prices be good for consumers of healthcare? Right now, retirees cannot truly negotiate with doctors as long as a.) They don’t know the real costs; and, b.)They aren’t party to the contracted negotiations between either their primary insurer (company) and the insurance company (plan administrator) or the insurance company (plan administrator) and the doctor. Pricing knowledge will truly allow the market to control costs based on value just like it does for the stock markets.)
- Fund the training of more doctors and nurses through educational incentives such as grants and government or military training, so that cost pressures on that resource will be less in the future.
- Require doctors to publicly identify their cost components at least once a year. (Wouldn’t open cost awareness help with controlling costs?)
- Require hospitals to publish their cost components once a year and identify but exclude any unrecoverable costs due to uninsured patients. Identification of and elimination of any costs that apply to non-insured patients should not be pushed to only the insured population but should be paid for via the federal government because of issues of under-employment or unemployment caused by globalization and the greedy actions of large businesses. (i.e., include only true costs for actual services rendered and not passed on non-collectible costs.)
Thank you. I hope that when the President brings his HSA plan to Congress that you will see that retirees and seniors on fixed incomes are given the ability to participate in HSAs and are not overly burdened with ever increasing healthcare costs by including these proposals in the legislation.
-------REMINDER ----- ----- The items below here are only required if you don’t use the AASBCR Site -----
Sincerely, [not required if you use the AASBCR access to the CAPWIZ site e-mail]
Your name [Definitely not required if you use the CAPWIZ site e-mail]
Sample Letter to President Bush
[If you use the AASBCR site access to the Congress.org CAPWIZ site e-mail, you only need to copy and paste the body of the letter into the document. If you write a letter and send it via regular mail, you would want to put the following information on the letter. You will have to select an area such as Health or Senior when you get to the recipients webmail site.]
AGAIN – DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME IN THE TEXT SECTION IF YOU USE CONGRESS.ORG CAPWIZ E-MAIL DELIVERY SYSTEM
Your Name Your Address Your City, State ZIP
The Honorable [Senator Name or Congressman’s Name] [Senator’s or Congressman’s Address - (obtained by going to the AASBCR website and clicking on how to find your representatives)]
---RIMINDER— -----Entries above this line not required using AASBCR access to the CAPWIZ site e-mail--
Dear Mr. President,
On February 15, 2006 you were in Columbus Ohio where you extolled the benefits of HSAs for Americans as a solution to healthcare problems in the United States. I am familiar with HSAs but as a retiree and member of the AASBCR, I do not agree with your HSA plan. The reason that I don’t agree with it is that your plan fails to address the type of actions that, in addition to supporting HSAs, I think are necessary for you (and Congress) to support in order to begin solving the healthcare cost issues for retirees or seniors.
Here are some of the items that I’m asking you, as our President, and members of Congress, to consider that would lower healthcare costs for retirees/seniors:
- Allow retirees to move 401k/IRA dollars into an HSA account. The much heralded HSAs have limited value to retirees under 65 and are not permitted for Medicare recipients those over 65. Yet retirees under 65 and Medicare recipients are now being required to pay the same high deductible costs of the new “incentive based” health care plans offered by their companies. Your plan does not address how retirees or those over 65 on their fixed income might fund them.
- Companies should no longer be able to disadvantage retirees by establishing multiple health insurance pools between active employees and their retirees, and, at the same time, benefit from the Medicare drug plan. Use incentives to encourage pooling or enact penalties if they don’t. For example, take Medicare prescription dollars away from companies who push costs to retirees and on ultimately on to the government. (The use of insurance pools spreads risks. Segregating pools increases risks (and costs) for pool participants. Pushing cost increases to retirees pushes more costs on to the general public as retirees will opt eventually to go to some other insurance plan, if possible.)
- Make all retiree medical costs a credit on retiree income taxes versus keeping it as a limited deduction.
- Allow ALL over the counter drug costs to be deducted on taxes. (Many prescription drugs are now over the counter. The cost hasn’t been reduced. The drugs are just no longer covered under a retiree insurance plan. And, again, not all retirees can fund an HSA.) - - Sponsor and help promote the passing in Congress a safe drug re-importation bill so that today’s senior citizens aren’t saddled with the abnormally high costs of prescription drugs that are contributing to the ever increasing cost of healthcare. Allow seniors an opportunity to legally purchase drugs at the discounted international prices. Go down to the Mexican border and watch seniors cross it to purchase their medicines. It is ironic that while we see illegal aliens come here, our moms and dads are going there so they can afford to remain healthy and solvent.
- Allow business employers to pool with small business employer healthcare plans to achieve economies of scale when dealing with insurance providers or plan administrators. (Don’t large insurers need the competition?)
- Require doctors to advertise the charge (price) for their services. All plan participants, including retirees via their company sponsored fiduciaries, can then negotiate with doctors for necessary service relative to quality of service at the right price. (Wouldn’t the knowledge of competitive prices be good for consumers of healthcare? Right now, retirees cannot truly negotiate with doctors as long as a.) They don’t know the real costs; and, b.)They aren’t party to the contracted negotiations between either their primary insurer (company) and the insurance company (plan administrator) or the insurance company (plan administrator) and the doctor. Pricing knowledge will truly allow the market to control costs based on value just like it does for the stock markets.)
- Fund the training of more doctors and nurses through educational incentives such as grants and government or military training, so that cost pressures on that resource will be less in the future.
- Require doctors to publicly identify their cost components at least once a year. (Wouldn’t open cost awareness help with controlling costs?)
- Require hospitals to publish their cost components once a year and identify but exclude any unrecoverable costs due to uninsured patients. Identification of and elimination of any costs that apply to non-insured patients should not be pushed to only the insured population but should be paid for via the federal government because of issues of under-employment or unemployment caused by globalization and the greedy actions of large businesses. (i.e., include only true costs for actual services rendered and not passed on non-collectible costs.)
Thank you. I hope that when you deliver your HSA plan to Congress that you will consider these suggestions and ensure that retirees and seniors on fixed incomes are given the ability to participate in HSAs and are not overly burdened with ever increasing healthcare costs.
-------REMINDER ----- ----- The items below here are only required if you don’t use the AASBCR Site -----
Sincerely, [not required if you use the AASBCR access to the CAPWIZ site e-mail]
Your name [Definitely not required if you use the CAPWIZ site e-mail] |