Health Care Critical to Seniors...Life & Death !..11/13/09

Alliance Leaders Join First Lady as Part of Health Reform Effort

Several Alliance leaders are scheduled to be with First Lady Michelle Obama this afternoon at a White House health reform event focused on senior women. Ms. Easterling, Alliance Executive Vice President Judy Cato and Executive Board member Barbara Matteson of Tucson, Arizona, are planning to attend the event, which will shine a light on the difficulties older women face getting insurance and how health reform will help them.
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Senate Works to Pass Its Own Health Care Bill :

The narrow margin in the House vote suggests enormous challenges in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is struggling to hold on to all 58 Democrats and two independents in his caucus. Sen. Reid has merged two bills into one. The fine print is not public, but according to The New York Times, the broad outlines are known. Unlike the House bill, which pays to extend coverage by taxing individuals who earn more than $500,000 a year and couples who earn more than $1 million, the Senate bill would impose a tax on higher-end insurance policies, which could have a detrimental effect on coverage for retirees and older workers. And unlike the House bill, which includes a national public plan, the Senate measure would allow states to opt out. White House officials realize that the closer the final vote comes to the November 2010 midterm Congressional elections, the more difficult it will be to pass legislation. "Senators must remember that many workers gave up other benefits in order to maintain their right to good health care benefits," said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance. "To tax those workers? health benefits now would be unfair."