Retirement Insights
By Karen Gilgoff
As the federal deficit soars, health care costs spiral out of control and nearly every state faces a serious budget crisis, retiree members are doing their part at the grassroots to help protect jobs, services and benefits. A few examples:
Illinois: Fighting for Drug Discounts
A four-year struggle to win a prescription drug-discount program for Illinois seniors has brought success. Retiree Chapter 31 played a big part in efforts to enact the legislation, which Gov. Rod Blagojevich recently signed into law. The final push to pass the bill began in April, when the chapter participated in a statewide Lobby Day sponsored by the Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans. Alerted by subchapter presidents across the state, more than 300 members rallied in Springfield.
In earlier efforts to pass the discount program, the chapter had organized letter-writing and postcard campaigns, district phone banks, a letters-to-the-editor project and delegations to town hall meetings. "Rising costs are making prescription drugs virtually unaffordable for seniors who don't have coverage," says Doris Clark, president of Chapter 31. "Even those of us who have good coverage could lose it if prices keep going up."
The new law establishes the Senior Citizens and Disabled Persons Drug Dis-count Program, which authorizes the state to negotiate prices with drug manufacturers. "Seniors really need to get a drug program under Medicare," Clark says. "But until that issue is resolved, our state discount program is the next best thing."
Oregon: Championing a Tax Initiative
AFSCME just chartered its first retiree group in Oregon — Subchapter 155 — and the members are already mobilizing on issues critical to seniors and the union.
Take Betty Brislawn, powerhouse activist. She's retired from the Multnomah County health department, and is a longtime member of Portland's Elders in Action. Determined to help pass a county tax initiative, she made it her business to visit every golden age club, senior center and meals program in the Portland area. In fact, she visited so many lunch sites that her campaign colleagues started calling her "Loaves and Fishes Betty."
Her standard stump speech begins by pointing out why there's a need for the first county-income tax in Oregon history: It would help fund education and social services. The 74-year-old Brislawn explains that the tax would help pay for nursing-home care, at-home care and prescription drugs for seniors.
"As important as a victory would be," she says, "the income tax would only last for three years. We need to find a longer-term solution — through the legislature or future ballot initiatives."
Brislawn's efforts not only won votes — 58 percent of the electorate approved the tax initiative in May — but also inspired new volunteers (see related story). By the end of the campaign there were more than 1,500 ground troops — many of them personally recruited by Loaves and Fishes Betty.
Action in Maine, Ohio, New York, Maryland
Retirees in Illinois and Oregon aren't the only ones who've been working the grassroots. In Maine, for example, Sub-chapter 136 organized a statewide call-in campaign to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R), thanking her for efforts to secure federal aid for states.
In many states, reductions in health care programs are a major issue. Ohio Retiree Chapter 1184 recently mounted a postcard campaign to the School Employees Retirement System (SERS) to protest threatened cuts in benefits. When New York's governor called for cuts this year, both Civil Service Employees Association Retiree Chapter 1000 and Retiree Chapter 82 urged lawmakers instead to temporarily raise taxes on high-income residents.
Maryland Chapter 1 has also been busy protecting retiree rights. The chapter beat back an effort to hike prescription co-pays for state retirees. It also prevented the state retirement system from eliminating elected seats for employee/trustees on the board and packing it with appointees.
