Attendees:

John Kotson—IBM Retiree; RMAC Chairman

Hazel Floyd—AUSWR CO/WY President; RMAC Member

Barbara Wilcox—AUSWR Health Care Specialist; RMAC Member

Pat Finley—AUSWR Retiree; RMAC Webmaster

Helen Domaratz—IBM Retiree; Member of Congressman Jared Polis’ SAGE Council

Karly Malpiede—Congresswoman Dianna DeGette’s Staff Person for Senior Issues

National

Discussions with Karly Malpiede

1. Emily Katz is Congresswoman DeGette’s legislative aid for health care in Washington. A conference call was suggested to discuss health care issues with her. Karly will look into setting it up. She was given a copy of our white paper on the need for Medicare catastrophic coverage.
2. RMAC’s agenda for 2011 was covered with Karly. We stated our position of eliminating/raising the cap on Social Security payroll taxes to bring it back to self sustaining without cutting benefits.
3. Karly recognizes the need for better communications of Democrat’s successes. Congresswoman DeGette has instructed her staff to concentrate on “outreach” this year.
4. The Older Americans Act is coming up for re-authorization this year. It funds local councils on “Aging”; covers transportation (Access-a-Ride), safety issues, food (Meals-on-Wheels), poverty issues, lack of affordable housing, ect. Suburban communities are growing older, there is a need to make the program encompass these communities. Now the question is will the program be renewed under a Republican House.
5. A meeting was requested with Congresswoman DeGette this year to discuss Social Security, raising the cap on Social Security and Medicare improvements, e.g., catastrophic coverage. Karly stated that DeGette will be spending more time in Colorado this year and she will put in our request for a meeting.
6. Karly is interested in starting a seniors group similar to Polis’ SAGE council. We suggested that she get in touch with Stuart Feinhor, the SAGE chairman. RMAC would be interested in participating in such a group.
7. Barbara Wilcox will send her health care reform columns that she writes for the AUSWR “Guardian” to Karly.
8. Redistricting—Colorado is close to gaining an 8^th congressional district. Under the current census, DeGette’s district must grow and Polis’ district must shrink. Denver is challenging the count, otherwise the redistricting commission would report in April or May.

Discussion of RMAC 2011 Agenda Items

1. Medicare Taxes--Medicare payroll taxes have been increased under the Affordable Care Act. Beginning in 2013, persons making more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250, 000 will pay an additional .9% in taxes. Currently, workers and their employers each pay 1.45% for a total of 2.9% on all wages. Under ACA, each will pay 2.35% for a total of 4.7%. In addition, high income households will be subject to a new 3.8% Medicare tax on investment income starting in 2013. Unlike Social Security, there is no income limit on Medicare taxes.
2. Social Security Trust Fund—Barbara Wilcox will research when Congress gained the ability to spend the Medicare surplus and replace it with treasury bonds and how the money was invested prior to that. She will report her findings at the next meeting.
3. Pension Funds—Currently, companies provide little visibility to pensioners on how the funds are managed. This was not always the case, companies used to provide yearly detailed reports on pension funds. RMAC’s agenda will be modified to request these reports be reinstated.
4. The white paper, “The need for Medicare Catastrophic Coverage” has been updated and should be used for all discussions on that subject.
5. A need was discussed for a white paper detailing RMAC’s position on Social Security reform. John Kotson and Barbara Wilcox will research the subject and generate a paper.
6. President’s Deficit Commission—A discussion is needed on their findings concerning Medicare and Social Security. This will be covered at the next meeting.

Colorado/Wyoming

1. Colorado Senator Irene Aguilar’s bill entitled “The Colorado Health Care Cooperative”. After some discussion it was decided that RMAC would not participate in supporting this bill, but we would monitor progress and revisit in the future.
2. Pat Finley attended the “Organizing for America” meeting where a nurse on Aguilar’s staff explained her bill. The major objective is to establish a health care cooperative that would replace the health care exchanges called for under the Affordable Care Act. A governing board would be appointed by the governor, state house and senate. Anyone who would benefit from the bill must do full disclosure. The insurance industry is against it claiming that it is a “single payer” plan but supporters say it isn’t. A description of the bill is attached to this meeting report. Pat will continue attending meetings and report on them at our quarterly meetings.
3. John Kotson reported that trying to work with Congressional District 4 Representative Cory Gardner on health care would be a waste of time. Gardner is the author of a bill to deny funding to the Affordable Care Act.
4. AUSWR will visit Wyoming in June or July. Hazel Floyd will contact the three Wyoming congressional staffs to try to get meetings with all three. Possibly, we could have teleconferences with their Washington staffers on Social Security and Medicare.

Other

1. RMAC Website—Pat Finley has been investigating site usage. Site visits noted were: “About Us”, 3955 from beginning, October 2007; “Join Us”, 455 since set up in July 2010; 43 on a January 2011 article. It was agreed that Pat should print a report for each meeting. Then we can subtract the counts each quarter to determine how many visits occurred.
2. Next Meeting—June 3^rd. Thanks to all that made time available for this meeting. It is requested that all members put the meeting dates on their calendars and notify the chairman if conflicts arise in time to reschedule the meetings. We need to have full attendance when we invite congressional staffers to speak.

John Kotson; RMAC Chairman