RMAC Meeting Report for June 25^th 2010

Attendees;

John R Kotson—IBM Retiree; RMAC Chairman

Hazel Floyd—AUSWR CO/WY President; RMAC Member

Barbara Wilcox—AUSWR Health Care Specialist; RMAC Member

Helen Domaratz—IBM Retiree; RMAC Member

Pat Finley—AUSWR Member; RMAC Member

John Romelfanger—AUSWR CO/WY VP Membership; RMAC Member

Joe Halpern—AUSWR member; RMAC Member

Jerry Pifer—Community Liaison Staffer for Congressman Ed Perlmutter

National

Jerry Pifer distributed documents covering several health care issues;

a.     New hotline for senior’s questions; will respond with answer within 48 hrs

b.     New patient’s Bill of Rights; recently issued

c.      Medicare and the new health care law; being mailed to Medicare recipients

d.     Cost of Inaction; what would of happened if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) hadn’t passed the Congress

e.     AARP Health Reform Guide

Jerry stated that the House of Representatives recently passed a financial regulation bill that opens up credit to small businesses. She sat in on a meeting that Congressman Perlmutter had with the president of Wells Fargo. The Congressman intervened on behalf of a small local business and obtained a loan for expansion. This resulted in creation of 100 new jobs.

Jerry stated that Congressman Perlmutter is on the House Financial Services Committee and the House Rules Committee. The Rules Committee sets the rules for debate and on what can be amended or corrected in new legislation. There will be technical corrections to the Affordable Care Act as it is implemented.

 John Kotson pressed the issue for Medicare catastrophic coverage. He pointed out that the new health care legislation establishes yearly out-of-pocket limits on health care spending for everyone except those persons eligible for Medicare. Jerry was not aware of this and was surprised. It was also discussed that in a meeting with Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi’s Washington staff it was stated that AARP is lobbying hard against Medicare catastrophic coverage.

Barbara Wilcox discussed the need for a permanent fix to the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. The House recently passed another 6 month “fix” to the problem. The temporary fixes have been going on for a number of years. We also discussed the issue of Medicare negotiating prescription drug prices with the manufacturers. This issue was addressed in the House version of health care reform but was dropped in the reconciliation bill.

As a result, Jerry took on a number of items to follow up on and get back to us with answers;

a.     The Medicare catastrophic coverage and the “Doc Fix” issues. She will send RMAC’s letter on the Medicare catastrophic coverage to Joe Rodriguez, Perlmutter’s health care staffer in Washington.

b.     She will talk to Andrea Autobee, Congresswoman DeGette’s Denver staffer about the issue of catastrophic coverage. Congresswoman DeGette is the person in a position to do something about Medicare issues.

c.      She will talk to the AARP advocacy person to determine if AARP is lobbying against Medicare catastrophic coverage.

d.     The issue of Medicare negotiating prescription drug prices with the manufacturers. Senator Enzi’s staff said a CBO analysis said it wouldn’t save money.

e.     The “doughnut hole closure”; will just some brand name drugs have a 50% discount during transition or is it all brand name drugs.

Jerry said to E-mail technical questions about the new health care law and she will ask the Congressional Research Council. Pat Finley will follow up with Jerry on the aforementioned action items.

Letters were written to each of the Colorado Congressional Representatives and signed at the meeting stressing the need for Medicare catastrophic coverage. Each member assigned a representative is responsible to deliver the letters and obtain a reply.

Colorado/Wyoming

Senator Mike Enzi--Barbara Wilcox reported on a telephone meeting that was held in June with Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi’s Washington staff, hosted by his Cheyenne staff. Three topics were discussed; Medicare catastrophic coverage, the Medicare sustainable Growth (SGR) formula and Medicare prescription drug costs. Enzi’s staff is supportive of Medicare catastrophic coverage, but indicated that action is unlikely for now. They stated that Senator Enzi submitted a resolution to add Medicare fixes to the health care reform bill but it was defeated. A meeting report was furnished to RMAC members and is posted on the RMAC website. Enzi’s staff is extremely helpful. While we were there they introduced us to the Cheyenne staff persons for Senator Barrasso and Congresswoman Lummis.

Congressman Jared Polis--Helen Domaratz and John Rommelfanger reported on meetings with Congressman Jared Polis and his SAGE council that meets monthly to discuss senior’s issues. Stuart Feinhor, Polis’ staffer, chairs the SAGE council meetings. He regularly attends the CARA meetings but we have been unable to get him to attend recent RMAC meetings. A lot of information comes in the SAGE meetings and Stuart responds to questions from council members.  Helen will distribute copies of our Medicare catastrophic coverage letter to SAGE members and John Rommelfanger will send Stuart our 2010 agenda. He will also send RMAC members an E-mail on Senior Law Day. Congressman Polis will attend the next SAGE meeting.

Contacts with Congressional Staffers—John Kotson requested that everyone send Medicare letters and our 2010 agenda to their assigned staff members and follow up by requesting meetings with the Congressional members during their August recess. Meetings can be requested through their websites and by calling their local offices.

RMAC Website—Pat Finley reported she has obtained administrative capacity so that she can delete old information but she is still in a learning mode. She reported a high number of hits on the website. We should think about a way to have persons that visit the website to identify themselves.

AARP—Joe Halpern reported that AARP has set up an E-mail network to forward information to your own network. He has not been forwarding information because it is not worthwhile. He hasn’t seen the AARP 2010 political platform.

Next Meeting—will be held in September 17^th at Johnson’s Corner. Helen Domaratz will set up the meeting.