AARP plans summer blitz to promote health care reform

CEDAR RAPIDS - Sensing Congress is "at the cusp" of taking up meaningful health care reform, Bruce Koeppl is embarking on a statewide blitz to engage Iowans to make sure AARP's priorities are part of any health care package.

That will include a national town hall meeting with Sen. Tom Harkin and AARP President Jennie Chin Hansen June 6 in North Liberty as well as a series of member briefings in Ottumwa June 11, Ames June 16, Cedar Rapids June 17, Cedar Falls June 23, Dubuque June 24 and Davenport June 25.

"Our members continue to tell us that health care reform is urgent and must be our top priority," Koeppl, AARP's Iowa state director, said Wednesday.  AARP believes a consensus has developed that the current health care system can't be sustained. "It's impacting the cost of everything we do - the price of cars, groceries and even saving for a college education. Everything we do."

Koeppl sees Harkin, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee's Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, as key players in whatever plan emerges from the congressional debate. Grassley participated in the committee's third and final walk-through session on health care reform.

"I'm working with Sen. Baucus (the committee chairman) to see if we can put together a bipartisan bill," Grassley said. "Our goal is to drive down health care costs which continue to rise at an unsustainable rate and to make sure health insurance coverage is more affordable and accessible."

Those are among AARP's priorities, Koeppl said. The group wants to make sure a congressional plan:

• Guarantees access to affordable coverage
• Closes the Medicare Part D "doughnut hole" for prescription coverage
• Prevent costly hospital re-admissions by creating follow-up care
• Increase federal funding for in-home and community-based services so older Americans can remain in their homes longer
• Create a pathway for the approval of generic versions of biologic drugs to reduce the cost of those treatments
• Improve Medicare Savings Programs and Part D Low-income Subsidy.

• Guarantees access to affordable coverage
• Closes the Medicare Part D "doughnut hole" for prescription coverage
• Prevent costly hospital re-admissions by creating follow-up care
• Increase federal funding for in-home and community-based services so older Americans can remain in their homes longer
• Create a pathway for the approval of generic versions of biologic drugs to reduce the cost of those treatments
• Improve Medicare Savings Programs and Part D Low-income Subsidy.

"We're optimistic, but there's a lot of work to be done yet," Koeppl said. "Change is hard. This is such a big piece of our GDP and there are so many stakeholders invested in this, it is a huge lift to get this thing done.

"We may have come 80 percent of the way, but the last 20 percent is going to be tough," Koeppl said.