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At 1:15 this afternoon, President Obama will host an online town hall where he will talk about health care reform. You can watch the event live by visiting www.HealthReform.gov.
But don’t just watch. You can also participate in online chat. Below is a sample question you can use to make sure long-term services and supports is part of the conversation. The more of us who participate, the better. I know I’ll add my voice. Will you?
Sample Question:
“The current system for providing long-term services and supports is fragmented, difficult and expensive. It affects not only people and their families, but also government programs, the medical profession and the economy as a whole. What will you do to help make it more affordable to care?”
Over Congress’ Fourth of July recess, we need your help contacting key legislators and urging them to include the CLASS Act in the various health care reform bills.
These legislators include senators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) and Finance committees, House members on the Energy & Commerce, the Ways & Means, and the Education & Labor committees, and the Blue Dog Coalition.
It’s a long list, but it’s important we contact as many of these legislators as possible.
Please let us know if you need contact information for these legislators.
We developed the following sample messages you can use to contact these legislators. Please feel free to add your own words, which are always more effective than standardized messages. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score, which is laid out descriptively rather than by numbers alone, is the most important point to get across.
Please include your contact information so you can follow up with the legislators. We’ll be in touch early next week with information about our plans for the August recess. Working together, we will make it affordable to care!
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Mark-up on the CLASS Act is expected for July 8, so this is the major key group to contact now
“We urge you to support the inclusion of the CLASS Act (Title XXXII) in the Affordable Health Choices Act currently in mark-up. This new insurance program is fully paid by premiums. The CBO score (negative $57.8 billion over 10 years) clearly shows that this program will not cost the government a penny over the next 10 years, has a positive savings of $2.5 billion in Medicaid in the first 10 years alone, and is sustainable over the long term. This program would transform financing of long-term services and supports, assist America’s workers and future retirees, and promote choice and independence.”
Senate Finance Committee
“We urge you to include the CLASS Act, introduced by the HELP Committee, in the Affordable Health Choices Act (Title XXXII) in your committee’s health reform legislation when it is introduced. This program would transform financing of long-term services and supports, assist America’s workers and future retirees, and promote choice and independence. The CLASS Act was scored by CBO as sustainable for the long term, and because it is paid by premiums, the score (negative $57.8 billion) confirms that this program does not cost the government a penny over the next 10 years and has a positive savings of $2.5 billion in federal Medicaid dollars in the first 10 years alone.”
House Energy & Commerce, Ways & Means, and Education & Labor Committees:
“We urge you to support including the CLASS Act, H.R. 1721, in the Tri-Committee Health Care legislation. The CLASS Act was introduced by Representatives Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.), and is now part of the Senate HELP Committee’s Affordable Health Choices Act as Title XXXII. This new insurance program would transform the financing of long-term services and supports, assist America’s workers and future retirees, and promote choice and independence. The CBO score (negative $57.8 billion over 10 years) clearly shows that this premium insurance-based program is not a cost to the federal government, is sustainable over the long term, and actually saves $2.5 billion in federal Medicaid dollars in the first 10 years alone.”
Blue Dog Democrat Coalition
“We urge you to support including the CLASS Act, H.R. 1721, in the House’s health care legislation. The CLASS Act was introduced by Representatives Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.), and is now part of the Senate HELP Committee’s Affordable Health Choices Act as Title XXXII. This new insurance program would transform the financing of long-term services and supports, assist America’s workers and future retirees, and promote choice and independence. The CBO score (negative $57.8 billion over 10 years) clearly shows that this premium insurance based program is not a cost to the federal government, is sustainable over the long-term, and actually saves $2.5 billion in federal Medicaid dollars in the first 10 years alone.”
Yesterday was a great day!
We passed another very significant milestone today in our quest to transform how long-term services and supports are financed. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its preliminary score the Senate HELP Committee’s Affordable Health Choices Act, which is highly congruent with our vision and plan that you have worked so hard to advance.
In a nutshell, CBO determined that a national insurance trust is sustainable and won’t drain government resources. The scoring determined that a national insurance trust would generate $59 billion in “savings” to the government, as Sen. Dodd said today in media reports. This conclusion helps bolster the case for including long-term services and supports in health care reform and removes the cost barrier that some members of Congress were raising to avoid the issue entirely.
Of course, our work is not complete and it will still require significant advocacy to make this plan a reality. As you might expect, political motivations are at play and supporters and opponents are speaking out very quickly. Our issue will become front burner fodder. We will have to educate many people about how The HELP Committee provisions move health care forward. We will continue to call on you in the coming weeks to call, write, and visit until your representatives and senators can do nothing but accept that we have a solution that makes it affordable to care.
I am awed by the work of Barbara Manard and Marsha Greenfield in providing expertise and cultivating relationships to help bring us to this point. They are dogged in their efforts and I am proud that they represent our association in these important negotiations. You have been dogged in your support as ambassadors and leaders, organizing call-in parties and speaking out in letters to the editor. Your efforts are proving worthwhile and will continue to do so as this debate continues.
We’re gonna make it affordable to care— for the cost of a cup of coffee!….
Stay tuned and stay involved… Larry
Larry Minnix testifies before Ways and Means Committee
The House Ways and Means Committee met for nearly 11 hours yesterday to talk about health care reform. Unfortunately, merely a few minutes were spent talking about long-term services and supports. AAHSA CEO Larry Minnix testified about the issue and urged the committee members not to ignore this vital part of our health care system.
“While the health reform discussions have focused on the acute care system, we note that the principles that underlie this draft bill resonate in the long-term services and supports field and mirror AAHSA’s public policy and the policy adopted by well over 100 organizations representing aging services and other providers, consumer groups and persons with disabilities,” said Minnix. “The care and services our members provide are an integral part of the health care system.”
Larry continued, “An estimated 10 million Americans currently need long-term services – personal care, assistive technology and other supportive services, and this number will grow. However, we lack a coordinated, national public-private system for adequately, efficiently and humanely delivering high quality services.”
Their silence to his statement, however, said more than the questions and quarrels I heard about other topics.
But the real irony of the day was in a conversation I overheard while standing outside the meeting room. Two men, probably in the early fifties, were taking the opportunity to catch up during a brief break.
I heard one of the men start talking about his 80-year-old father. He was explaining his dad’s recent hip replacement and sighed as he described his physical, and possibly mental, decline from the vibrant man he once knew. “I’m just glad he made it this long without too many problems,” he lamented.
I can’t help but wonder if things may have been a bit different if that hallway conversation had been taken into the hearing room. If the members considered their own parents, friends or loved ones, they might have spent more time on it.
So, that’s my charge to you, readers. Contact your legislator and tell them about your dad or grandmother. Tell them why they can’t be ignored and why it’s time to make it affordable to care.
