Your AARP ; Where We Stand
By A. Barry Rand, CEO
SENIOR VICE PRESIDEN T, PUBLICATIONS Catherine Ventura-Merkel
EDITOR IN CHIEF & SENIOR VP, PUBLICATIONS Hugh Delehanty
GROUP PUBLISHER & VICE PRESIDENT Jim Fishman
VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLICATION OPERATIONS Traci L. Lucien
Bulletin™
A Call to Action
EDI TOR AND VICE PRESIDEN T James S. Toedtman
From the start of the health care reform debate, we have been firm.
We believe that Americans need health
care reform now. That means fixing what’s
wrong and preserving what’s right. It also
means improving care for all Americans
and getting more value for every health
care dollar we spend.
We believe there are specific elements in
the House and the Senate bills that help
achieve these goals.
First, do no harm. To us, this means no ben-
efit cuts for people in Medicare. It also means
protecting existing employer-sponsored insurance and protecting your right
to choose your plan and your doctor. Health decisions must be made by pa-
tients and their doctors, not insurance companies or the government.
Protect and strengthen Medicare. Older Americans today and in the
future must have the health coverage they need, and they must be able to
afford it. In order to make health care affordable, we have to lower drug
costs, provide free preventive health checkups and help lower-income
people afford Medicare.
That means closing the Part D “doughnut hole,” reducing waste, fraud
and abuse, and preventing costly, dangerous hospital readmissions.
Another critical issue for all people on Medicare is to ensure that they
see the doctor of their choice. We support the House effort that changes
the payment formula for doctors.
Offer affordable coverage options for people 50 to 65. No one should
be denied affordable insurance coverage because of age or health status.
Insurance companies should not be able to reject you, or charge you an
outrageous premium, because you got sick once, might get sick again, lost
your job, are over 50, or because your employer dropped your coverage.
That’s why we support the House provisions that limit an insurance com-
pany’s ability to charge an older person no more than twice what it charges
a younger person for the same insurance, as well as subsidies to help lower-
and moderate-income individuals afford coverage. Currently, insurers can
charge up to 10 times more for an older person. And that just isn’t right.
This is where we stand. This is what we’re fighting for. This is what our
members have told us they want from health care reform. Not all of these
elements are in any one bill, but different pieces are contained separately
in the bills currently being debated in the House and Senate. Our goal is to
make sure that these provisions are included in the final health care bill.
We have made it clear to the president and Congress that we will fight
with the strength of our entire membership—nearly 40 million people—to
protect your benefits. We will block any proposals that eliminate benefits,
raise out-of-pocket costs, reduce access to care or lead to rationing.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your help. Check healthactionow.org.
Contact your senators, your representative and the president. Tell them
that you support these measures and want them included in any legislation
that goes to the president. You can make a difference. ;
The Global
Health Care
Balance
Sheet
Cost
Annual per capita
health care spending
DEPU T Y EDITOR Teo Furtado
DESIGN DIREC TOR Eric Seidman
EXECU TIVE EDI TORS Barbara Basler, Kim Keister, Carol Simons
MANAGING EDITOR Cathy Ginther
FEATURES EDITOR Barbranda Lumpkins Walls
SENIOR EDITORS Patricia Barry, Carole Fleck, Trish Nicholson
MANAGER, EDITORIAL COPY Brian Miller
COPY EDI TOR Don Beaulieu
SENIOR EDI TORIAL RESEARCHER Roberta Yared
EDI TORIAL RESEARCHER Corinne Hayward
EDITORIAL PRODUCTION MANAGER Cathy L. Hall
ASSOCIATE ART DIREC TOR Cathy Kelley
ASSISTAN T ART DIREC TOR Anne Masters
PHOTO EDITOR Michael Wichita
ASSISTAN T EDI TOR Victoria Lemley
SENIOR EDI TORIAL ASSISTAN T Nicole Williams
$7,290
ONLINE DAILY NEWS EDITOR Tina Johnson-Marcel
ONLINE MULTIMEDIA EDI TOR Nicole Shea
ONLINE CON TEN T PRODUCERS Elizabeth N. Bro wn,
Douglas Van Sant
PRODUC TION MANAGER Brian S. Horting
QUALITY MANAGER Mel Baughman
PRODUCTION COORDINATORS Roland A. Bland, Sherry Coleman,
Judy Skilling
ADVER TISING POLICIES MANAGER Pamela Byrd Berard
ADVER TISING POLICIES ANALYS TS Brenda Allen, Mireya G. Donahue
$3,588 $3,595
$2,992
$2,561
DIR. OF PUBLICATIONS PLANNING & PROMO TION David Singleton
PLANNING & PROMOTIONS MANAGER Heather Nawrocki
ONLINE MANAGING EDI TOR Jane Ryan
EDI TORIAL CON TRAC TS MANAGER Amelia Jones
SENIOR MANAGER, MEDIA RELATIONS Michelle Alvarez
SENIOR RESEARCH ADVISER Earnestine Hargrove
I T SUPPOR T Consuela Allen, William Coulter, Matthew Haines,
Nono Kusuma, Bonnie Russell, Josh Singer
UnitedStates
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Canada
Japan
Results
Preventable deaths per
100,000 population
110 103
90
77 71
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, ADVER TISING Shelagh Daly Miller
DIREC TOR, SPECIAL ACCOUN TS Ina Nordstrom
NE W YORK SALES MANAGER Peter Zeuschner
TRAVEL CATEGORY MANAGER Patricia Slattery
ACCOUN T MANAGERS Kelly Burke, Raquel Hagen,
Helen Holtzman, Michelle Weisfeld
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, MARKE TING Patricia Lippe Davis
MARKE TING DIREC TOR Bonnie Maglio
RESEARCH DIREC TOR Mark Bradbury
ASSOC. DIREC TOR, IN TEGRATED MARKE TING & MERCH. Laurie Levitt
ASSOC. DIREC TOR, IN TERAC TIVE MARKE TING Linda Tse Correia
ASSOC. DIREC TOR, MARKE TING EVEN TS & PROMO TION Shari Horowitz
SENIOR MARKE TING MANAGER Chris Tedrick
PROMO TIONS MANAGER Lisa Van Dyne
ADVER TISING BILLING ADMINISTRATOR Surfina Adams
ADVER TISING BILLING ASSOCIATE Tracey Fanuele
ADVER TISING SERVICES ADMINISTRATOR Christine Merklinger
ADVER TISING SERVICES COORDINATOR Lori Cordenner
St
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GreatBritain
G
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Canada
Japa
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ADVER TISING SALES REPRESEN TATIVES
NE W YORK Advertising Sales Office 646-521-2500
DETROIT Maiorana+Partners 248-546-2222
MIDWEST Zoeller Media Sales 312-782-8855
ATLANTA McLaughlin Media Mix 770-888-2212
FLORIDA McLaughlin Media Mix 561-844-6336
SOUTHWEST Carol Orr & Co. 214-521-6116
WEST COAS T PP W Sales Group 415-543-5001
CANADA York Media 613-832-0576
DIREC T RESPONSE Adriana Associates 212-719-5952
Sources: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; World Health Organization;
Commonwealth Fund
Questions about your membership, change of address,
member services? Call AARP’s Member Contact Center
at 1-888-687-2277 (TTY [877] 434-7589)
or e-mail member@aarp.org
