AARP, Sen. Clinton and SCHIP

The AARP has released a statement thanking Rep. Dingell (who introduced the SCHIP bill Vito Fossella voted against) and Sen. Clinton "for working to ensure America’s children have access to affordable health care."

Not surprising Rep. Vito Fossella is not mentioned anywhere in that statement, in fact the AARP has gone so far as to criticize Fosssella and others;

We are disappointed by New York representatives who voted against strengthening health care for children and improving Medicare. As Congress leaves for vacation, some lawmakers chose to reject the opportunity to strengthen Medicare and provide health insurance for millions of eligible children who are without health coverage.

I mention all of this because had you not known, and if you are a reader of the SI Advance you may have been mislead after reading their recent article;
Clinton, Fossella unite in opposition to health benefit guidelines for poor, August 29. The article claims that Clinton and Fossella "unite" in some manner on this issue, which is true in only that they both are critical of new federal obstacles in place to prevent the implementation of SCHIP expansion. What the article fails to mention is that first the two are in no way working together despite being "united" and second, a point I have harped on for a bit now, Vito Fossella voted NO on the SCHIP bill. Sen. Clinton on the other hand supports the Senate version. How can the Advance claim they are united when they have exact opposite voting records on this? Both small details one might expect to be included in article had it been actual reporting as opposed to more free positive press for the Congressman.

SCHIP: Fossella's staff write LTE's

On August 1, 2007 Vito Fossella voted against SCHIP, which would provide insurance for children to low and moderate income families. Since then his spin team has been trying to portray this as a vote to protect Medicare. Yesterday his press secretary, Craig Donnor, and not Vito himself no surprise there, replied to a Letter to the Edtior in the Advance stating;

"Mr. O'Leary wrongly portrays this issue as a battle of rich against poor. The unfortunate reality is that the Democratic Congress pitted seniors against their grandchildren in a fight for access to needed health care. In contrast, Senate Democrats passed a bipartisan bill that expanded SCHIP and contained no cuts to Medicare." - Craig Donnor

Mr. Donnor would be well off reading the post here from last night about the AARP praise for the passage of the SCHIP bill that Fossella voted against, and lambasted specifically NY State members of Congress who voted against the bill. The AARP supports the SCHIP bill;

The bill strengthens Medicare's programs for low-income older Americans that help them get the health care and prescription drugs they need, while reducing excess payments to private Medicare Advantage plans. The CHAMP Act also reauthorizes and strengthens the SCHIP program, which already provides millions of children with affordable health coverage, and allows states to cover more than 5 million eligible uninsured low-income children who are not enrolled in the program.

Mr. Donnor and Rep. Fossella can continue to say they support SCHIP, but when the vote took place Fossella voted NO. When they then said the problem was not SCHIP it was Medicare cuts the AARP shut down those claims and state the bill strengthens Medicare.

SCHIP: Fossella vs. AARP

On August 1, 2007 Vito Fossella voted against the bill to reauthorize the SCHIP program. In his floor speech Fossella claims he supports SCHIP (by voting against it) and that in fact his only objection is to supposive Medicare reductions in the same bill;

"In my district alone it will reduce funds for Medicare Advantage by $58 million for the 38,000 enrollees in just the first year..."

(The above is my transcription of a portion of his one minute floor speech)

But before he goes on, let's turn to an expert in this area, say the AARP, American Association of Retired Persons;

"AARP applauds those representatives from New York who voted for the CHAMP Act," said AARP State Director Lois Aronstein. "These lawmakers put the needs of older Americans and low-income children ahead of special interests, and took the necessary action to help improve our health care system. SCHIP and Medicare are critical for the health care of this country and the CHAMP Act makes necessary improvements to both programs. We look forward to working with Senators Schumer and Clinton to put a bill on the President's desk before SCHIP expires in September."

Aronstein added: "We are disappointed by New York representatives who voted against strengthening health care for children and improving Medicare. As Congress leaves for vacation, some lawmakers chose to reject the opportunity to strengthen Medicare and provide health insurance for millions of eligible children who are without health coverage. When SCHIP reauthorization and Medicare legislation return to the floor for final approval, we hope those members will rethink their vote against such a critical bill." [via Press Release, Aug 2]

So you can listen to Fossella's claims that he supports SCHIP by voting against it, and that he is only concerned about Medicare, or you can listen to what AARP is saying about this bill improving Medicare. Your choice.


see more at:
Fossella and SCHIP

LTE: Lower prescription drug prices

In a 'Letter to the Editor" (LTE) from some time last week, because I am way behind in this, in the SI Advance, Marie from Great Kills writes in about the shadiness of drug companies and why we are paying so much for prescription drugs;

Who will finally stand up for us against the powerful drug industry?

First, they thwarted the will of the American people by stopping Congress from allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices.

Now we read (April 25: "Most docs let drug-makers buy them food") that we really don't know what's being exchanged between drug companies and doctors. Are gifts resulting in all of us paying more for fancy, new, high-cost drugs when generics that work just as well are available?

You can read the rest of Marie's letter here. Following up on this thought, when the AARP sent out questionaires to Congressional candidates in 2006 they asked "Will you support or oppose allowing Medicare to use its bargaining power to negotiate lower prices for needed prescription drugs?" Maybe not surprising Rep. Vito Fossella refused to answer. We believe he was too busy supporting the troops to waste time on frivolous questionnaires asking whether we should make medicine affordable to our grand parents. The guy has a poster saying he supports the troops isn't that enough AARP?