November 3, 2011 Sewall-Bellmont House & Museum Cost: $15.00
Join OWL as we co-host the event: The Fight to be Heard from Susan B. Anthony to Hillary Clinton.
Women in America have not always been encouraged, let alone allowed, to speak in public. Join us for this interactive, moderated discussion where speakers examine lessons learned from the past and assess the current climate in which more and more women are making their way into the public arena. Learn tips and tricks for communicating with audiences and encouraging others to be “well-spoken women.”
Speakers will include: Representative Tammy Baldwin Ann Lewis, No Limits Foundation Chris Jahnke, author of The Well-Spoken Woman
Yesterday, the Strengthen Social Security Campaign, of which OWL is a member of the Steering Committee, sent a letter to Senators Patty Murray and Jeb Hensarling urging them not to consider any cuts to Social Security, as they decide what to include in a deficit-reduction package. This would include changes to the way cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) would be calculated, which would result in benefit cuts to Social Security, SSI, Veterans and other federal programs.
Furthermore, they included, Social Security is projected to run a $69 billion surplus in 2011, has an accumulated reserve of $2.7 trillion, and it can pay all benefits in full and on time for the next quarter of a century. Social Security’s projected long-term shortfall is manageable in size and still decades away. The campaign urged Congress to address it after the committee has concluded its work and that it should be done through the normal legislative process with full participation of the American people, as it has always been done.
For the full letter, click here.
For more information on the Strengthen Social Security Campaign, click here.
The White House Office of Public Engagement will be providing state-by-state updates this week on the American Jobs Act.
See your state on the list? Make sure to call in for the latest updates. Click on the image to enlarge.
“The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working.” —President Barack Obama, September 8, 2011
For more information about the American Jobs Act, click here
It’s that time of the year: Annual Medicare Open Enrollment. This year, there is one important change to remember:
Medicare Open Enrollment starts earlier on October 15, 2011 and ends December 7, 2011. In addition to enrolling during this period, you also have an opportunity to drop or change your Medicare health and drug coverage.
Need More Information on Medicare?
Review “Medicare & You”
Visit the Medicare & You website to download a copy of the handbook. Click here for the website.
Call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).
All current enrollees of Medicare will automatically receive a copy of this handbook in the mail. The handbook is also available in Spanish.
Visit the Medicare website
Medicare’s website has an abundance of information that is helpful to beneficiaries. The information covered includes:
1) A tool that allows you to compare plans
2) Access to a medicine worksheet to assist with the drug plan selection process
3) Cost of premiums
4) How to get personalized help
Take advantage of all the information and materials that are available to you. Some Medicare materials are available Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Russian.
Click here to view a list of the materials that are available to you on the Medicare website.
Do not forget to mark your calendar for October 15 and enroll in Medicare on time!
The Office of Public Engagement and the Domestic Policy Council will be holding a conference call on Thursday, October 6 with Melody Barnes, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and others, on the American Jobs Act and its impact on non-profit and faith-based organizations. Please find the invitation and dial-in number below, and feel free to share this information widely with anyone in your networks who might find it useful.
Here is the call-in information: Date: Thursday, October 6, 2011 Time: 4:30 PM EDT Dial-in: (800) 230-1059 Title: Please tell the operator you wish to join the “American Jobs Act Call.” We recommend calling in 10 minutes in advance.
This call is off the record and not for press purposes.
For more information about the American Jobs Act visit www.whitehouse.gov/jobsact and see the fact sheet on President Obama’s plan.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, a membership organization, exists to protect, preserve, promote, and ensure the financial security, health, and the well being of current and future generations of maturing Americans.
Recently, NCPSSM released a video, American People Say “NO CUTS” to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This video highlights their new campaign to fight proposals in cutting these vital programs.
While Washington bickers—Americans agree. A news bipartisan national poll confirms, yet again, that the American people of all ages and political parties do not believe Washington should cut vital programs like Social Security and Medicare to reduce the deficit.
This month features headlines such as:
OWL Endorses Bill to Honor Alice Paul
Medicare Open Enrollment: October 15 - December 7
Older Americans are Working Longer
September 23 Celebrated the One Year Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act’s Patient’s Bill of Rights
Cape Cod Times, Sunday, September 25, 2011 op-ed by Merton C. Bernstein
Attacks on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid focus, almost exclusively, on what they cost. They seldom mention what they accomplish, that private substitutes would cost more and that their absence would be devastating.
Recently Sen. John Kerry, a member of the Congressional “supercommittee” charged with recommending reductions in the federal debt, told the Boston Globe: “In 13 years, the only thing we are going to be able to pay for, at the federal level, is Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and debt service, interest.”
Roughly 70 percent of federal outlays are for “transfer payments” (apparently referring to the named programs), 20 percent is set aside for defense, leaving 10 percent for “government.” (He did not mention that the interest payments are largely attributable to defense, tax breaks for the wealthy and profitable companies like General Electric, some of which pay no income tax.) “It’s an unsustainable path.”
Kerry concluded: “You have to look at the transfer payments.”
Doing so, we find that Social Security provides modest cash benefits to 56 million people – retirees, the disabled and their family members, including several million children. It pays its own way from three sources: FICA (the payroll tax), income tax on Social Security benefits of high-income beneficiaries and interest payments on Treasury obligations issued for money borrowed from Social Security.
The trust fund holds some $2.6 trillion in such bonds, projected to grow to $4.4 trillion. Although pooh-poohed by some as “worthless IOUs,” investors worldwide value them highly, as demonstrated by their purchases, even during periods of financial turmoil.
Actuarial projections show Social Security able to pay benefits in full for 27 years. With only slight changes, such as subjecting earned income above $250,000 to FICA or boosting the FICA rate by one percentage point for employees and employers, Social Security would be in solid financial shape for the next 75 years. Do you know of any private program or institution that can match that?
Medicare also pays its own way, for the most part, with FICA contributions. They are supplemented by federal tax revenues. Such outlays are expected to grow substantially, primarily because medical care gets more and more costly; private plan outlays increase even more as nonstop premium payments attest. We have yet to tame all medical care costs. But, Social Security and Medicare are cost-efficiency champions, paying under 1 percent and 3 percent, respectively, for non-benefit costs, far lower rates than private programs incur.
Were we to curtail Social Security or Medicare benefits, the alternative would be more costly.
The Ryan plan, passed by the House of Representatives with only Republican votes, “saves” Medicare outlays by shifting them to program participants; indeed, analyses show, it would double participants’ out-of-pocket costs.
A combination of federal and state taxes fund Medicaid and the State Child Health Insurance Program, which provides health services to tens of millions of low-income people. Means testing to limit them to low-income people adds very substantial non-benefit costs. If all children qualified, per capita costs would be lower. We could hold down outlays by taxing the benefits of higher earners. The tax mechanism is less costly than means testing.
Senator Kerry also expresses concern over “demographic” shifts: that 16 people were at work in 1950 for each beneficiary; today only 3.3 workers are and that ratio will worsen. But that 1950 worker produced less, earned less and therefore contributed less FICA revenue per capita than current and future employees. Since 1950, innumerable technological revolutions – the computer and the Internet are but two major examples – multiplied individual productivity and earning power. Ignoring technological change is like omitting the expansive power of yeast from bread.
Unsustainability does not mean impossibility. It means unwillingness to provide needed resources. Allowing the two Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to terminate and shrinking unjustifiable tax breaks would change the reckoning substantially. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid exist because private programs covered too few and cost too much.
Merton C. Bernstein of Brewster, a retired law professor at Washington University, served as the principal consultant to the 1982-83 National Commission on Social Security Reform and was a founding board member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.
September 28, 2011 - OWL was invited to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for a celebration of women’s fight against breast cancer. During this moving event, women from all around the country spoke to encourage White House leaders to collaborate with organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and women’s groups to help fight this disease that takes so many women’s lives each year. According to the American Cancer Society’s most recent estimates for breast cancer in the United States are for 2011: about 230,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women, 57,650 new cases of carcinoma in situ (CIS) will be found (CIS is non-invasive and is the earliest form of breast cancer), and 39,520 deaths from breast cancer (women).
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/—A new OWL survey of women showed women of all ages need more information about menopause, and that younger women, in particular, often lack even basic information about this major life stage:
Nearly 70 percent of younger women (age 30-44), many of whom could shortly experience initial symptoms, say they don’t have enough information about menopause;
Two-thirds of younger women say they do not know most signs and symptoms of menopause;
Nearly a quarter of younger women – 24 percent – say they have more information about symptoms and treatments for erectile dysfunction (ED) than menopause.
Additionally, the survey results showed that younger women aren’t aware of some of the most serious and life-altering symptoms of menopause. Only 16 percent of women age 30-44 cited painful intercourse as a symptom of menopause, and only half of women in this age group thought vaginal dryness was a serious symptom. Younger women also showed substantially less understanding that weight gain and insomnia are common menopausal symptoms. In contrast, in women ages 55-60, about 50 percent recognized insomnia and painful intercourse as symptoms of menopause; three-quarters understood vaginal dryness to be a symptom; 58 percent reported weight gain as a symptom.
“Many younger women have more information about ED than menopause,” said Bobbie Brinegar, Executive Director at OWL. “We need to demystify menopause.”
Strong majorities of women of all ages – over 90 percent of those surveyed – voiced support for a publicly available, Web–based menopause education program that includes information about how to manage and treat menopausal symptoms.
“Our survey shows a clear need to educate women about this important juncture in life earlier so they know what to expect and can plan for how they would like to deal with menopause’s symptoms,” said Margaret Huyck, Ph.D., President of OWL. “Getting reliable information earlier will mean better health and higher quality of life outcomes for women in the future.”
After seeing these survey findings, OWL would like to see a push toward evidence based menopause education.
On September 12, OWL’s Bobbie Brinegar, Executive Director, and Camille Browne attended President Obama’s American Jobs Act event at the White House Rose Garden.
On July 30th, Medicare will celebrate its 46th year. This well-respected program has been providing affordable and reliable health insurance for elderly and disabled Americans for nearly half a century, while maintaining low administrative costs (below 3%).
As Important as Ever
When President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law on July 30, 1965, he said
“No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern
medicine. No longer will illness crush and destroy the savings that [seniors] have
so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later
years. No longer will young families see their own incomes, and their own hopes,
eaten away simply because they are carrying out their deep moral obligations to
their parents.”
New Benefits for Seniors
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, seniors in Medicare can now receive free annual checkups and preventative screenings. And the prescription drug coverage gap will be closed by 2020. For more nformation, request a copy of OWL’s 2011 Mother’s Day Report, or read it online at www.owl-national.org.
The Solution, Not the Problem
With 50 million people uninsured, and millions more underinsured, cuts to Medicare should be off the table. Instead, Congress should be protecting, improving, and expanding it to all Americans. Let’s celebrate the 46 years of success of this bedrock program by pledging to Respect, Protect, and Reject
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In Nancy Altman’s all- encompassing book, The Battle for Social Security: From FDR’s Vision to Bush’s Gamble, she explains that “Roosevelt’s vision for Social Security as a ‘sound and adequate protection against the vicissitudes of modern life,’ has transformed society from a world of poorhouses and elderly parents living with adult children to an era of financial independence in old age. History reveals Social Security has survived prior assaults because it has always enjoyed the support of almost all Americans. Armed with the proper insight, Americans can win the current battle and ensure that this vital institution will continue to provide security to our children, grandchildren and all future generations.”
2012 Mother's Day Report
Council of Champions