Health Reform Experts Team Up To Praise Workplace Wellness Programs

John DuBois, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

The Alliance for Health Reform joined forces Monday with the AARP and manufacturer Johnson & Johnson to promote workplace wellness programs.

The wellness programs are aimed at encouraging employees to live healthier lives, which should lower premiums and overall costs.

AARP supports workplace wellness with “Policies and services at the worksite to adress: Tobacco use, nutrition in cafeterias and vending machines, minimizing stress and promoting positive mental health and encouragement, physical activity before, during and after work hours,” said Vice President of Social Impact for AARP Nancy LeaMond.

Johnson & Johnson’s programs include online risk assessment, lifestyle and disease management counseling, mental health and well-being and health education awareness. Johnson & Johnson also doesn’t allow smoking on premises world-wide.

‘‘Johnson & Johnson’s credo is to have the world’s healthiest workforce,” said Vice President of health policy at Johnson & Johnson Kathy Buto.

“Firms want a healthier and more productive work force and they want lower health insurance costs and they think these programs can accomplish both of these goals,” said Board Member of the Alliance for Health Reform Ed Howard Howard.

AARP Endorses House Health Care Bill

By Meagan Wiseley - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

AARP CEO A. Barry Rand announced Thursday that the lobbying organization for seniors' interests is endorsing the House health care bill.

“On behalf of our nearly 40 million members, AARP is pleased to endorse the Affordable Health Care for America Act,” Rand said during a press conference.

Rand said the House bill improves and strengthens Medicare benefits and protects the program for future generations. He also said the bill restricts insurance companies from discriminating against older Americans.

"The Affordable Health Care for America Act...meets those goals with improved benefits for people in Medicare and needed health insurance market reforms to help ensure every American can purchase affordable health coverage,” said Rand.

The House is preparing to vote on this bill as soon as Saturday.

Rand added, “As members of the House gear up for this historic vote, they will hear from older Americans.”

AARP is the largest membership organization for people over 50.

Drug Companies To Cut Drug Costs For Seniors, Aid Obama’s Health Care Reform Plan

President Barack Obama announced an agreement between the administration and pharmaceutical companies Monday to lower the cost of medication for Medicare recipients.

The agreement seeks to eliminate the so-called “doughnut hole”, in which Medicare only covers prescription drug costs up to $2,700 annually and again when drug costs exceed $6,154 a year, but not the costs landing between the two benchmarks.

Through the agreement, pharmaceutical companies will provide $80 billion to lower the costs of medication for Medicare recipients over the next ten years.

“Drug and insurance companies stand to benefit when tens of millions more Americans have coverage. So we’re asking them, in exchange, to make essential concessions to reform the system and help reform costs,” said Obama. “It’s only fair.”

Nursing in Critical Condition

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, for Talk Radio News Service

Susan Reinhard, of AARP’s Public Policy Institute helped found the new Champion Nursing Coalition in response a critical and worsening shortage. Thousands of qualified prospective students are being turned away from nursing programs for lack of enrollment capacity, she said. At the same time, she continued, there will be a deficit of 500,000 to a million nurses by 2025.

John Lumpkin, MD, MPH, of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation described a few of the many roles nurses fill, clinical, social, chronic care, and administrative. He called the shortage unprecedented.

There is some good news, however, according to Nancy LeaMond Ex. VP at AARP. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) polls show overwhelming positive ratings and public support for the profession. AHRQ is a federal agency tasked with studies of healthcare improvement.

Citing Institute of Medicine Studies, Nancy Reller, representing Consumers Advancing Patient Safety, said that understaffing of nurses is associated with worse outcomes.

Jerald Newberry, for the National Education Association, said that asthma, obesity, and diabetes are so common in elementary schools that every one of them should have a nurse, but that many do not.

The panel recommends that funds be used to expand nursing programs, which would require about twice as many instructors as now. As it stands, about half of current instructors are expected to retire over the next decade.

McCain, Obama advisors spar over economy, taxes

Economics, tax cuts, social security and health care dominated a discussion held by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) today looking at how the next president will pay the nation’s bills. AARP, which is the nation’s largest lobbying organization, held the forum with policy advisors for both Senators McCain and Obama. The discussion was moderated by Wall Street Journal Economics Editor David Wessel and also featured Diane Lim Rogers from the Concord Coalition and John Rother with AARP.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Senior Policy Advisor with the McCain campaign wasted no time in attacking Sen. Obama for his health care proposal and how he would finance it. Holtz-Eakin said “Senator Obama has made the promise that every American should have health care comparable to Congress. That’s about $7,000 for an individual, $12,000 at the moment for a family plan. There are about 50 million uninsured if you multiply 7,000 times 50 million you get 350 billion dollars and that money has to come from somewhere and so far there is no explanation as to where.” Holtz-Eakin added that the Obama campaign needs to “show me the money.”

But Jeffrey Liebman with the Obama campaign stated that McCain’s plan is “bottom up economics.” In reference to the social security debate “Sen. Obama thinks that pay as you go social security is probably the greatest invention on the domestic side in history and it’s certainly not disgraceful,” said Liebman.

Liebman added that the McCain campaign put out an economic plan in which they said the Obama campaign cannot afford our benefit promises to seniors. But Liebman says that Obama “does believe we can choose to meet our benefit promises to seniors.” Liebman added that Obama believes the best way to handle social security is “in a bipartisan way,” and that the place to start in paying for it is “to have the people that can most afford it contribute more revenue.

In closing on a central campaign theme, Holtz-Earkin seemed to criticize both parties for failing to deliver results. “This country is not just tired of eight years of the Bush Administration. It is tired of a Congress that fails to deliver and it is tired of politicians who cannot rise above their party or narrow political ambitions to put the country first,” said Holtz-Earkin.