Kelli Fritts
At February’s Senior Education Network meeting, AARP Associate State Director for Advocacy Kelli Fritts discussed senior related legislation pending at the Colorado State Legislature and at the U.S. Congress. Several notable bills that AARP is reviewing includes Medicare funding, Affordable Care Act (ACA), State Medicaid, Medical Information Bureau (MIB), TABOR, and the future of the state healthcare exchange.
House Speaker Paul Ryan wants to change how Medicare is funded using a voucher program. The issue is making Medicare solvent beyond the 10 years expected lifespan. This would allow recipients to choose a health plan provider using a voucher versus having the U.S. Government provide the service. Ryan calls Medicare an entitlement, which it really isn’t as taxpayers have paid into for years, unlike real entitlements in welfare payments and tax cuts for businesses.
Lots of speculation on the future of ACA exists with the proposed elimination or changes, but President Trump has said ACA will be available until replaced with the Republican version, supposedly with lower premiums. However, everyone agrees health insurance for everyone is still needed, but how to reduce costs and pay for it. All states provide Medicaid payments for the needy, but legislation is proposed to keep Medicaid solvent. Many states including Colorado are having budget problems, which affects Medicaid payments. Some feel Medicaid is abused, but budget changes will likely happen.
It is proposed to either use Federal block grants or per capita funding, which AARP supports.
The MIB is a database of all patients’ records used by the medical community. Even pre-existing conditions and pregnancies are reported into MIB. The issue is whether MIB should be available to health insurance companies for their use.
State legislators want to change the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, aka TABOR, to allow refunded amounts set up by the original bill to be used for the next year. The changes need voter approval. The legislators feel this bill is too restrictive or cuts need to happen in education, Medicaid, and infrastructure if no changes are made.
A current SB3 bill wants to kill the local state health exchange as it is costly, or combine it with another state to reduce overall costs. Premiums have gone up and several insurers have left the program.
In any of these programs, taxpayers have to realize all these programs are not free and are paid for by taxpayers either directly or indirectly. Tough choices, but you can help by calling your federal or state legislator by telephone with your comments. Kelly says emails don’t work when contacting your legislators.
AARP at the national and state level is very involved with legislation. Kelli is very involved at the state level in convincing legislators to support the AARP supported programs. For more information, email kfritts@aarp.org