OWL truly is the voice of 70 million women 40 and older! 

July 8, 2008 - The Vote is at 4pm today!

Call your Senators Now!!  1-866-622-2184

As you likely know a couple of weeks ago the House passed a Medicare bill, H.R. 6331 by an overwhelming bipartisan majority, 355 to 59. Republicans supported the bill by more than a 2 to 1 margin.

The Senate is taking this bill up again.  Please put pressure on the Senate to take up H.R. 6331, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act.

The bill is virtually identical to Senator Baucus' bill S. 3101. The Senate is expected to vote on this House passed version today.  Ask the Senate to pass H.R. 6331! 

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OWL has been fighting for many of these improvements for the past several years. This bill will:

•Strengthen low-income protections against rising Medicare costs;

•Improve access to preventive services;

•Begin to level the playing field between private insurance Medicare Advantage plans and traditional fee-for-service Medicare, consistent with nonpartisan MedPAC recommendations, thus saving taxpayers and Medicare beneficiaries billions of dollars;

•Provide mental health parity in Medicare by gradually lowering the 50% coinsurance rate for outpatient mental health services to 20%;

•Expand primary care and provide incentives for physicians to provide additional  primary care services.

We are very close to getting the 60 votes we need so please do your part to help! 

If you support H.R. 6331 and would like to help pass the bill in the Senate please contact your Senators today.  Feel free to use NCOA's toll-free number: 866-622-2184. 

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Now You Can Call Toll-Free to Ask Your Senators to Support

The Most Important Nursing Home Quality Legislation in 20 years!

1-866-544-7573

The Service Employees International Union (United for Quality Care) is sponsoring this toll-free line for you to ask your Senators to support S. 2641, the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act.  Please call NOW!

To Make Your Call

Dial 1-866-544-7573. After a brief message about the bill, you will be asked to press "1" to be connected to a Capitol operator. Ask for your senator's office. (Senators are listed in order by State on the Senate website, if you need to find their names.) When the senator's office answers, identify yourself and say:

"Please ask Senator ______ to co-sponsor S. 2641, the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act. The bill is sponsored by Senators Grassley and Kohl. Nursing home residents and their families in  [our state]   are strongly supporting this bill."

To Get More Information About S. 2641

You can get more details about the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act on the NCCNHR website, www.nccnhr.org.

S. 2641 Will:

•Provide the public information about who owns and operates nursing homes; nurse staffing levels and turnover rates; penalties for poor care; and how much they spend on nursing and other costs.

•Require annual audits and independent monitoring and sanctions for chains with chronic problems

•Increase civil monetary penalties, including fines up to $100,000 when a resident dies from neglect or abuse.

•Require facilities to pay fines into an escrow account while they pursue appeals.

•Strengthen complaint processes.

•Require facilities to give 60 days notice before they close, and continue Medicare and Medicaid until residents are relocated.  

•Provide for studies of temporary management, Special Focus Facilities, culture change, and training of nurse aides and supervisors.

 Call 1-866-544-7573 Now!  

Share this e-mail with your colleagues, networks, friends, nursing home residents, and families.

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You can’t save what you don’t earn…

Tragically, poverty for women in old age too often begins the first day they enter the workforce. When they make decisions about the kind of job they will hold, few women understand the consequences that these decisions will present when they retire. Younger women believe this problem is one of the past, but three in five women today still hold sales, clerical, and retail jobs--low-wage positions that frequently offer no pension benefits.

♀The average woman now spends 12 years out of the workforce caregiving.

    That's time she is not vesting in a retirement savings plan or paying into Social Security. Today, many women in midlife are part of the "sandwich generation"--caring simultaneously for small children and aging parents. And, the fastest growing segment of the population today is those 85 and older, making the "sandwich" a triple-decker for many women who are caring simultaneously for grandmothers, mothers, and small children.

♀Women still earn only 77 percent of what men earn for the same work --

    Even 40 years after the Fair Pay and Equal Pay Acts were passed. This wage gap widens throughout women’s lives—women between 45 and 64 working full time only earn 70% of what men earn. Over a life time, this adds up to more than $440,000 lost in earnings for a woman to save and/or invest in her retirement.

♀Women live an average of 5.2 years longer than men, which compounds all of these problems.

    In 2005, 12.5% of older women living in poverty, as compared to 7.3% of older men.  Social Security represents 90 percent or more of income for 45 percent of all older women; Social Security is the only source of income for one of every four unmarried women over 75 years of age.

Urge your Senators to Vote for the Fair Pay Restoration Act (S. 1843)!

Click HERE to download a printable fact sheet.