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The AARP on Tuesday unveiled its legislative priorities for the 111th Congress, a characteristically sweeping agenda that focuses on the recession and on health reform.
“This is not the time for business as usual,” AARP CEO Bill Novelli said at a press briefing. “It is time to demonstrate bold leadership, to take our agenda to the people and our nation’s leaders, to demand change and to work hard to bring about that change.” With more than 40 million members among the crucial bloc of voters 50 or older, the nonpartisan AARP is in a position to do just that and to be a major player in the Obama administration’s health reform push, for which it has been preparing for at least two years.
Along with the Service Employees International Union, the Business Roundtable and the National Federation of Independent Business, AARP is a member of the Divided We Fail coalition, which advocates for national health reform.
Divided We Fail’s participants spent millions on grassroots organizing, public relations and advertising to promote health reform during election season. Though the individual groups undoubtedly will split on contentious issues during the health reform debate, they also intend to continue pushing lawmakers to keep healthcare on the legislative agenda in the coming year.
Novelli maintained that addressing escalating national healthcare spending is critical to solving the long-term fiscal problems facing Medicare.
In the meantime, the AARP is busy promoting its priorities for the economic stimulus bill President-elect Obama wants on his desk shortly after inauguration, seeking to ensure that older Americans benefit from the measure, which is approaching $1 trillion in its potential cost.
“The economy’s effect on people who are in the workforce, near-retirees and retirees is drastic; the time for solutions is now,” said Nancy LeaMond, the group’s executive vice president for social impact and the director of Divided We Fail.
In particular, the influential seniors’ group is aligning itself with state governors and influential Democratic lawmakers in seeking as much as $50 billion in additional federal Medicaid spending to help states sustain the healthcare program for the poor. Medicaid is by far the largest provider of nursing home and other long-term care coverage.
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