AARP petitioning Congress not to abandon retirees

AARP Arkansas leaders and volunteers announced Wednesday that more than 10,000 petitions from AARP members and local constituents will be delivered over the next few days to district offices of Arkansas’ members of Congress. The petitions call on these elected leaders not to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits as part of any deal to reduce the nation’s deficit.

The petitions are part of a larger effort on behalf of AARP Arkansas and AARP nationally to take Social Security and Medicare benefits off the table for any deficit negotiations that are happening on Capitol Hill.

In Arkansas, 635,031 people rely on Social Security and 536,817 rely on Medicare. Additionally, more than 62,000 older Arkansans rely on Medicaid, which also has been targeted for cuts under various proposals. Of the 62,000 older Arkansans who rely on Medicaid, more than 18,000 require nursing home care. Thousands more stay out of nursing homes through Medicaid funded in-home care programs.

During an event this morning at the Jacksonville Senior Center, AARP Arkansas volunteers and leaders announced the pending delivery of the petitions and urged Congress and the President to cut waste and close loopholes instead of cutting critical Medicare and Social Security benefits that millions of Americans have earned through a lifetime of hard work. Tax breaks and loopholes cost the federal government an estimated $1 trillion each year.

“AARP Arkansas is proud to deliver the real voices of people who live here in Arkansas who are united in their opposition to cutting the hard earned benefits that they have paid into for their retirement for any debt deal,” said AARP Arkansas State Director Maria Reynolds-Diaz.“These petitions represent Democrats, Republicans and independents who oppose any cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits as part of any deal to pay the nation’s bills.”

AARP Arkansas leaders recently returned from Washington, D.C. where they delivered the same strong message to Congress. Along with the petitions to be delivered in the coming days, thousands of Arkansans have made calls, sent emails and attended town hall meetings over the past several weeks to tell their elected representatives not to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits. AARP also launched a new direct-message television ad recently (www.aarp.org/protectseniors) that urges Congress and the President to cut waste and close loopholes instead of cutting critical Medicare and Social Security benefits that millions of Americans have earned through a lifetime of hard work, and reminding elected officials that seniors are “NOT Pushovers!”

By the numbers, Social Security and Medicare in Arkansas:

· 635,031 Arkansans receive Social Security. That’s 21.8% of the state population. Only West Virginia (24.3%) and Maine (22.8%) have higher percentages of the state population receiving Social Security.

· 58 percent of Arkansans receiving Social Security count on it for 50% or more of their income.

· 34 percent of Arkansans receiving Social Security count on it for at least 90% of their income.

· The average Social Security retirement benefit is only about $14,000 a year. The average annual benefit for retired women is even less, about $12,000.

· 536,817 Arkansans (18.4% of the population) count on Medicare for access to health care, from prescription drugs to visits to their doctor’s office.

· $22,000 is the average income for half of all Medicare beneficiaries. Today's Medicare beneficiaries already pay an average of $5,500 each year out of their own pockets for their medical expenses.

Social Security did not cause our nation's budget problem, and Social Security should not be weakened to fix it. There is no immediate crisis. Social Security can pay 100 percent of benefits for the next 25 years. With modest, gradual changes, Social Security can stay strong for decades after that.

While Medicare provides critical health care security for more than half a million Arkansans, the high costs of premiums, cost-sharing requirements, and gaps in the benefit package can result in beneficiaries spending a significant share of their household budgets on health care. AARP believes that the best way to hold down costs in Medicare is to hold down costs throughout the health care system, with a particular emphasis on delivery system reform.

Other steps that can be taken to reduce Medicare costs are cracking down on costly hospital readmissions, overbilling by providers and standing up to the drug companies, which are costing Medicare billions of dollars in high-priced drugs and by preventing less costly generic drugs from coming to market. Simply shifting costs on to other payers of health care services, particularly older Americans and their families, would do nothing to reduce the overall costs of services and would undermine current and future retirees’ access to quality care.

“Cuts to critical programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will impact real people in Arkansas by reducing benefits they have earned and shifting health care costs onto people who can least afford it,” Reynolds-Diaz said. “Congress and the President need to make tough choices to address our growing debt, but they should make responsible decisions without hurting seniors and cutting the benefits they earned after a lifetime of hard work.”