AARP president: Health-care reform is vital

America is facing an aging and more diverse population, and the government needs to be ready, AARP President Jennie Chin Hansen said yesterday at the AARP Virginia Diversity and Aging Forum in Richmond. About 160 people attended the forum at the Virginia Holocaust Museum.

Nearly 20 percent of the people in Virginia will be 65 and older in 2020, up from about 14 percent now, said Hansen, who discussed aging with dignity and underscored the AARP's support for health-care reform.

She said disparities in treating acute illness and managing chronic disease are getting worse for African-Americans, Hispanics and poor people.

"The important step that we must absolutely take is a reformed, patient-focused health-care system that provides everyone with affordable health-care insurance," Hansen said.

She said the AARP is nonpartisan and the organization supported the 2003 Medicare prescription-drug plan under President George W. Bush.

She said the AARP disapproved of the "donut hole" in the plan requiring people to pay at some point for their medications, but the overall plan was a step toward broader, more inclusive coverage.

The donut-hole section will be phased out completely by 2019 in the new bill before Congress, she said.

Bill Kallio, state director for AARP Virginia, acknowledged that health care is a complex, contentious issue, because it involves redirecting 17 percent to 19 percent of the U.S. economy.

He recognized the huge ideological divide about whether government has the right to sell health insurance, confirming that the bill approved last weekend by the House of Representatives would require everyone to have health insurance.

The final health-care plan will need to resonate with American values in political, cultural, historic and financial areas, Kallio said.

"It's right to cover everybody. It's wrong to leave people out because of age or health reasons. But we still want freedom of choice. That is core to American values and that is being played out."

He said $400 billion to $500 billion would be cut from Medicare under the plan. However, that money will be regained by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, he said.

"We think the bill is about fixing what is wrong and preserving what is right," Kallio said.

He said Medicare filled a hole, providing health care to seniors. "People 65 and older have access to universal health insurance and it's a single-payer system," he said.

Medicaid filled a hole for people who couldn't afford medical care. And a federal insurance plan was put in place for children of low-income workers.

But there are still too many holes in the system, he said. "We have been patching the system together." Millions of Americans are uninsured. Also, people have been losing coverage in this recession as they get laid off.

The AARP wants affordable coverage for all people, he said.

Contact Carol Hazard at (804) 775-8023 or .