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Saturday, December 15, 2007

Edwards Highlights Declaration Of Independence For Older Americans On Day Six Of The Main Street Express

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 15, 2007

CONTACT:
Audrey Waters


Edwards will help seniors get the health care and financial protection they need, while allowing them to live as independently as they desire

Ames, Iowa – On the sixth day of his Main Street Express bus tour across Iowa, Senator John Edwards discussed his 11-point Declaration of Independence for Older Americans, which is based on the core values of security, dignity and choice. Joined by award-winning actor Kevin Bacon, today Edwards will hold events in Dubuque, Cedar Falls and Mason City, where he will highlight his agenda to help older Americans get the health care they need and the financial protection they deserve while allowing them to live as independently as they desire.

“The basic bargain of America – that if you work hard your whole life, you should be able to retire with dignity, security and basic lifestyle choices – is at risk,” Edwards said. “Our policies for work and savings have not adapted to the economic and lifestyle changes of the 21st century. Our commitment to a secure retirement has been undermined by corporate greed, our housing policies too often force seniors to choose between isolation or institutionalization, and our health care system is set up to treat the worst problems instead of promoting health and quality of life.

“These are huge challenges, but the great thing about our country is that the American people – just as they have over and over again in our nation's history – have the power to rise up and bring about the change America needs. I know if we rise to the challenge, we can restore the basic American bargain and reaffirm our commitment to helping older Americans live independently, with the freedom to exercise choice over their health care, financial security and lifestyle.”

To meet the economic and lifestyle changes of the 21st century, Edwards has proposed an 11-point Declaration of Independence for Older Americans, which is organized around three core principles: financial independence, health security and living with dignity:

Protect financial independence and strengthen retirement: Edwards will fight to keep the promise of social security by ending the Social Security tax exemption for workers making more than $200,000 a year. He believes employees who have worked hard all their lives should not be denied the pension benefits they have earned, and corporations must honor the pension promises they've made to workers. Edwards will protect workers pensions and also take steps to help families save, including new universal retirement accounts, new "Get Ahead" tax credits, and free savings accounts for the nearly 28 million Americans without them. He will also fight predatory lending practices that target seniors and other vulnerable Americans and will preserve seniors' freedom to work by strengthening and vigorously enforcing the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Promote health security: Edwards will protect the future of Medicare through health care reforms, and will make prescription drugs more affordable by permitting the safe reimportation, restricting direct-to-consumer advertising, allowing Medicare to negotiate drug costs, and by giving Medicare beneficiaries the choice of a public plan for their prescription drugs. Edwards will also revolutionize chronic care through proactive disease management and will strengthen geriatric health care by rewarding good primary care, encouraging experienced geriatric doctors to train the next generation of primary care doctors and training nurses to identify simple conditions that could cause downward health spirals.

Support living with dignity: Edwards will offer choices in long-term care to older Americans by reforming Medicare and Medicaid to let people elect home-based care in their communities. Edwards will also improve nursing homes and crack down on elder abuse, while at the same time promoting livable communities and accessible transportation to support independent living for older Americans.

Edwards has spent his career fighting for regular families like the ones he grew up with in his small, rural hometown. During the eight-day Main Street Express tour, Edwards is highlighting his plans to stand up to the special interests on Wall Street and help hard-working families on Main Street. Tomorrow, Edwards will hold events in Ames, Colfax and Ottumwa, and on Monday, he will wrap up the tour with events in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and a finale event in Davenport.
More information on the Main Street Express can be found at http://www.johnedwards.com/Iowa. Included below is Edwards' Declaration of Independence for Older Americans.

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Security, Dignity and Choice:
A Declaration of Independence For Older Americans

“It’s time for a new kind of declaration of independence – a commitment to helping older Americans live independently, with choice over their health care, financial security and lifestyle. It’s not enough to congratulate ourselves on living longer, if we are not living stronger.” – John Edwards

Americans are living longer. The number of Americans over the age of 65 is expected to double by 2030, and the number over the age of 80 will more than quadruple to almost 20 million. A key part of the American Dream is that we have reasonable access to quality health care and security at retirement. Yet both of these are now gravely at risk for most Americans. Our policies for work and savings have not adapted to the economic and lifestyle changes of the 21st century. And as a result the basic bargain of America – that if you work hard your whole life, you should be able to retire with dignity, security and basic lifestyle choices – is at risk. [Census Bureau, 2006]

Today, John Edwards highlighted his 11-point Declaration of Independence agenda for older Americans – including proposals to strengthen retirement security and the basic bargain of our country.

FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE: Strengthening Retirement

1. KEEP THE PROMISE OF SOCIAL SECURITY: Edwards is committed to protecting Social Security, because there is no more important retirement program in the country. He has strongly opposed President Bush’s efforts to privatize it, which would cut guaranteed benefits and risk individuals’ retirements in the stock market. He does not believe we need to reduce benefits, change the retirement age or increase the burden on average workers. Edwards has proposed changing the Social Security tax exemption for individuals making more than $200,000 a year, who now pay Social Security on less than half of their income violating the fundamental principles of fairness under our progressive tax system. He also supports a nonpartisan, non-ideological commission to examine ways of ensuring that every American can retire with dignity and that the life of the Trust Fund is extended.

2. PROTECT PENSIONS AND HELP FAMILIES SAVE: Employees who have worked hard all their lives should not be denied the pension benefits they have earned, and corporations must honor the pension promises they’ve made to workers. Edwards opposes allowing companies to either switch out of defined-benefit plans in order to deny long-term workers their pensions, or go into bankruptcy just to avoid keeping their promises to employees. Edwards will give workers claims for lost pensions just like for lost wages, prevent corporate executives from walking away with millions while companies are going bankrupt and reform the bankruptcy laws to prevent companies from shedding their obligations to workers. At the same time, because nearly half of working Americans do not own any type of personal retirement account, Edwards has proposed a series of initiatives to help millions of families better realize financial security and retire with dignity, including
- new universal retirement accounts requiring every business to automatically enroll its workers in at least one plan: either a traditional pension, a 401(k), or an IRA – workers will be allowed to build up these accounts over the course of their careers and take them from job to job;
- new “Get Ahead” tax credits to match the annual savings of low and middle-income families, dollar for dollar, up to $500; and
- free savings accounts for the nearly 28 million Americans without them, so that they also have ways to save and avoid exorbitant check-cashing fees. [Aspen, 2007; Federal Reserve, 2007]

3. FIGHT PREDATORY LENDERS: Older Americans’ 80-percent homeownership rate makes them prime targets for predatory mortgages. Some seniors are also especially vulnerable to payday lenders, who charge over 300 percent interest on cash advances on Social Security checks. Edwards will protect families through a new federal regulator, the Family Savings and Credit Commission, whose sole job is consumer protection. He will also ban all payday loans at interest rates over 36 percent, prohibit predatory mortgage lending, and rein in abusive practices in the credit card industry. [AARP, 2007; CRL, 2006]

4. PRESERVE FREEDOM TO WORK: The freedom to work is critical to the dignity of older Americans. Edwards supports vigorous enforcement and strengthening of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and of the Americans with Disabilities Act, in order to fulfill Congress' original intent. He will also protect older workers from early retirement “incentives” that push them out of their jobs. His health care plan will guarantee quality, affordable coverage for older Americans who transition to temporary, part-time or independent work but who are not yet Medicare-eligible. He will also modernize unemployment coverage to give more security to workers.

HEALTH SECURITY

5. PROTECT THE FUTURE OF MEDICARE: Skyrocketing health care costs have put enormous pressure on Medicare and threatened its long-term solvency. The Medicare Trust Fund is projected to be exhausted in 2019. But instead of strengthening Medicare for our seniors, George Bush has surrendered it to the drug companies and the HMOs. The first step toward extending the life of Medicare is universal health care reform that makes health care more cost-effective, including investments in preventive and chronic care, electronic medical records, and promoting proven cost-effective care. Within Medicare, Edwards will also clamp down on skyrocketing drug costs and stop the overpayments to insurance companies, using the savings in part to ensure that low-income Medicare beneficiaries have access to the care they need. [OASDI Trustees, 2007]

6. MAKE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS AFFORDABLE: Drug costs have risen three times faster than inflation since 1994. Top pharmaceutical companies now spend twice as much on marketing and administration as they do on R&D. Edwards will take on the pharmaceutical and insurance industries to help seniors. He will allow Medicare to negotiate drug costs with drug makers and will give Medicare beneficiaries the choice of a public plan for their prescription drugs. He will also permit safe reimportation from Canada, restrict direct-to-consumer advertising for new drugs, ensure evaluation research is truly independent, eliminate loopholes and trade obstacles that block generic drugs, and let the FDA approve biogeneric drugs in order to bring down costs. [KFF, 2007; Families USA, 2007]

7. REVOLUTIONIZE CHRONIC CARE: The 23 percent of Medicare beneficiaries with five or more chronic conditions account for 68 percent of its costs, yet Medicare makes almost no effort to coordinate care. Doctors may unknowingly provide duplicative treatments and undercut each other's efforts, resulting in unnecessary problems and hospitalizations. Edwards will revolutionize chronic care by promoting proactive disease management, ensuring that doctors regularly check up on their patients, encouraging doctors to communicate with each other, and making sure that every American with chronic conditions has a patient-centered “medical home” allowing a doctor to coordinate their care and promote life-improving care as well as treat life-threatening emergencies. [Anderson, 2005]

8. STRENGTHEN GERIATRIC PRIMARY CARE: Patients treated by doctors trained in geriatric care are a third less likely to become disabled, half as likely to develop depression and 40 percent less likely to require home health services, according to one study. But reimbursement rates for this care are so low that the division was shut down soon after the study was completed. The number of certified geriatricians fell by one-third between 1998 and 2004 and only 330 doctors nationally will complete geriatrics training this year. Edwards will emphasize primary care in the Health Care Markets by writing reimbursement rules that encourage proven geriatric care. He will also call on experienced geriatric doctors to train the next generation of primary care doctors and nurses in geriatric care, including how to identify treatable conditions in older Americans – like depression, malnutrition, isolation and podiatric problems – that, if ignored, often lead to a downward health spiral. [Boult at al., 2001; Gawande, 2007]

LIVING WITH DIGNITY

9. OFFER CHOICE IN LONG-TERM CARE: Our long-term care system is poorly equipped to give independence to older Americans, and it forces many families to either juggle elder care, child care, and their jobs or spend themselves into poverty to pay for nursing homes. Edwards will reform Medicaid and Medicare to let people choose home-based care in their communities and to test innovations such as asset and income protection programs. He will also support states and communities offering much-needed and often less expensive alternatives – like adult day care and senior villages – that allow seniors to live at home with their loved ones.

10. IMPROVE NURSING HOMES AND CRACK DOWN ON ELDER ABUSE: Independence is the goal, but we also need to strengthen quality and safety protection in nursing homes. Edwards will establish national standards for nursing home care, increase national enforcement against abusive nursing home chains, expand inspections, and increase penalties for homes that fail to provide decent care. He will also help improve the quality of care with measures like reducing patient-staff ratios and improving care provider training.

11. PROMOTE LIVABLE COMMUNITIES AND ACCESSIBLE TRANSPORTATION: Too many seniors are forced to move from their private homes because they lack supportive services or reliable transportation. Edwards will promote livable communities to make sure every American has the right to age in the setting of their choice. He will create new supportive housing options that give older Americans the choice of community-based living, vigorously enforce civil rights laws to ensure that federally-funded housing is accessible, and protect supportive services like meals-on-wheels and senior centers that sustain independent living. He will also meet the special needs of senior drivers by helping health professionals educate them about the interaction between health and driving and by encouraging automakers to make affordable, wheelchair-accessible vehicles. In the Edwards administration, the Department of Transportation will prioritize transportation access requirements, fund accessible mass transit like “kneeling buses” that are easier to board, and support para-transit services in rural areas.


Paid for by John Edwards for President.

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