FIVE PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS SPEAK TO AFT EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

The AFT executive council heard from five of the major 2008 Democratic presidential candidates at its meeting May 15-16 at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md. Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York each spent about an hour with the council. (Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut also was to appear but a late-scheduled Senate vote prevented him from coming.) "We've got a great group of candidates this year," AFT president Edward J. McElroy said. The AFT endorsement process for 2008 includes candidate meetings with McElroy and the council, questionnaires on AFT priority issues, other meetings with labor leaders and input from members. Three AFT members, selected through voting on the AFT's You Decide 2008 Web site, attended the council meeting to ask their winning questions of each of the candidates. While there were differences in substance and style among the candidates, they addressed many of the same issues: providing healthcare for all Americans, overhauling No Child Left Behind, reforming labor laws and ending the war in Iraq. (Brief summaries of each of the candidates' appearances are available here.) Additional Democratic and Republican candidates will be invited to the executive council's July meeting. The AFT videotaped each of the candidates and plans to put video highlights on the You Decide site when they are available.

AFT RETIREMENT COMMITTEE FOCUSES ON MEMBER ACTIVISM

Communicating with and mobilizing members were the focus of AFT’s national retirement committee May 17-18 at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md. The centerpiece of the day-and-a-half discussion was a national poll conducted in early May for the union by Financial Dynamics, a New York-based polling firm. Among the key findings: retirees remain committed union members whose prime focus is the union’s ability to deliver clear benefits to them in areas such as healthcare coverage and pensions. Like working members, retirees see the union’s primary function as securing good benefits and wages for members. Retired members want the union to be engaged in the political process, lobbying for laws and policies that benefit union members, but like working members, many retirees do not make the connection between the union’s role in endorsing and supporting political candidates and reaching their lobbying goals. On the communications side, more than three in five retirees polled visit the Internet at least once a week; nearly half visit daily. After the war in Iraq, most retirees identify supporting healthcare coverage for all Americans as their number one national issue. More than 90 percent view AFT favorably, a rating even higher than that for working members. The poll revealed that the union still has many opportunities for increased activism in areas such as contributing to COPE, lobbying legislators, working in political campaigns, mentoring new members and students, and community service. “This survey will provide a valuable road map for AFT’s retiree program,” said AFT retirement committee chair Kathleen Donahue, an AFT and NYSUT vice president. “It will help us use our resources more effectively in organizing and mobilizing retired members and making the concept of lifelong unionism a reality.” Committee member went right to work, focusing on an activist agenda for the union’s Nov. 27-29 retiree leadership conference.

SENATE BLOCKS PRESCRIPTION DRUG REIMPORTATION 

The Senate voted 49-40 May 7 for an amendment offered by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) to add language to proposed Medicare legislation (S. 3) requiring the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to certify the safety of reimported drugs. The vote toughens existing language and makes reimportation even less likely since the Bush administration has consistently refused to allow any federal entity to certify the safety of imported drugs. The original amendment offered by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) already included quality measures to insure that the Food and Drug Administration approve the drugs and the facilities where they are manufactured. In addition, the imported drugs must be packaged and shipped using approved counterfeit-resistant technologies. “The Alliance for Retired Americans is all for rigorous safety standards when it comes to prescription drugs,” said executive director Ed Coyle. “Where we draw the line, however, is shamefully using those standards as a shield to keep drug company profits sky high.”

MEDICARE ADVANTAGE MARKETING PRACTICES DRAW FIRE 

State insurance regulators from Georgia, Oklahoma and Wisconsin testified May 16 before the 

Senate Special Committee on Aging about unethical or illegal practices that sales agents allegedly have used in their states to enroll Medicare beneficiaries in private Medicare Advantage plans. Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Sean Dilweg testified that 37 out of 43 states that participated in a recent survey have received complaints that Medicare Advantage plan sales agents have used confusing or misleading marketing practices. "In the most troubling of these cases, unscrupulous agents have enrolled beneficiaries with dementia into an inappropriate plan.” Dilweg, who chairs a National Association of Insurance Commissioners task force on senior issues, added that insurance departments in 39 states have reported complaints about plans and agents providing misleading information about provider networks, plan benefits or the beneficiary cost sharing. “In some cases, particularly with regard to private fee-for-service plans, seniors are being told that they can go to any provider without being told that they may only go to a provider that accepts Medicare, and also a provider that has agreed to accept the plan's payments," Dilweg said. Insurance regulators in 31 states also have reported "cross-selling" -- when sales agents first discuss Medicare prescription drug plans with seniors and then attempt to sell them other plans such as Medicare Advantage plans, annuities and funeral policies. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), $430,000 in fines were levied against insurers last year, and 98 private fee-for-service plans were placed in corrective action. Medicare Advantage plans cost between 12 percent and 19 percent more than traditional Medicare pans. Medicare Advantage plans will receive federal subsidies of more than $65 billion over the next five years.

PRICES FOR MOST COMMON MEDICARE DRUGS CONTINUE TO RISE 

Costs for many of the most commonly prescribed medications are continuing to rise under Medicare's new prescription drug plan, according to a recent House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report. Government investigators found that prices for 10 of the most prescribed brand-name medications have shot up an average of 6.8 percent since December under Medicare private insurance plans, while wholesale prices for the same drugs have risen just 3 percent. Over the same period of time, plan premiums have already jumped 13 percent. While both drug manufacturers and health insurers noted that overall program costs remain low due to a push toward generic drugs, the investigators said that the drugs tracked in the study were 2004's top 10 sellers, and only one has a generic alternative. In 2007 alone, while name-brand drug costs were predicted to increase 7 percent over the entire year, they had nearly climbed that high by mid-April.

NYSUT’S JIM WOOD IS NEW ALLIANCE PRESIDENT IN NEW YORK 

Delegates to the New York State Alliance biennial convention on May 16 elected NYSUT’s Jim Wood, their new president. Delegates also chose Nancy True, secretary; Dorothy Breen, treasurer; Paul Schuh, labor vice president; and Molly Krakowski, community vice president. Former AFT vice president and NYSUT secretary-treasurer Fred Nauman will be president emeritus and remain a member of the New York State Board and national Alliance Board. A 30-year veteran of NYSUT and former director of field and legal services, Wood he taught in the Rome City Schools, where he was active in the Rome Teachers Association — holding the positions of secretary and president. Wood also served as treasurer and president of the New York State Labor-Religion Coalition, treasurer of the Healthy Schools Network, and associate director of the New York State AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education.

TEXAS RETIREES TESTIFY FOR PLAN TO BOOST TRS PENSIONS

Leading the charge against a Texas Senate plan to shift state Teachers Retirement System pension costs onto active employees and school districts, five Texas Federation of Teachers retirees testified May 17 in the House Pensions and Investments Committee against a Lubbock Republican's bill to shift future costs from the state onto current school employees and local school districts. Annie Banks of Houston, Elaine Jones of Corpus Christi, Steve Jennings of San Antonio, Dwight Harris of Victoria and Rodney Brown of Austin reflected the concerns of many teacher and school employee retirees. Banks reminded committee members of the big increases in healthcare costs that retirees have been required to absorb by the state since 2003, while they have had no pension increase since 2001. She thanked the committee for proposing HB 1105, providing a 13th pension check this September funded by a long-overdue increase in the state contribution to 6.7 percent (up from the current 6.0 percent). Jones pointed out that state support for retiree pensions and healthcare has dwindled over the years, with the state having cut its contribution rate to the constitutional minimum since 1995. Harris stressed that providing decent retirement benefits is a state obligation. A 13th check ought to be funded with a higher state contribution rate, he said, not used as an excuse for the state to reach into the pockets of school employees and take money out of school districts' budgets. Action on the bill is expected by May 28.

IN A LANDSLIDE, WAYNE STATE ADJUNCT FACULTY VOTE UNION 

A unit of more than 800 adjunct faculty at Wayne State University on May 14 voted overwhelmingly for representation by the WSU Union of Part-Time Faculty, an affiliate of AFT Michigan. The vote was 442-57 for the union. Workload, the lack of health insurance and benefits and wage stagnation were prime motivators for collective action, said Thomas Trimble, an adjunct who teaches composition. He noted that many part-timers at Wayne State have not seen a raise in 10 years. In addition to working for gains at the bargaining table, AFT Michigan is pushing for legislative relief through a bill modeled on the AFT's Faculty and College Excellence (FACE) campaign.

NEED A PLACE TO HANG YOUR HAT THIS SUMMER? 

Save 10 percent off the "Best Available Rate" at thousands of participating Cendant locations throughout the world! You can use the link below to locate participating hotels at your destination and make your reservations. To make your reservation online, click on the Cendant link Cendant Hotels Online or call 877/670-7088 or use the toll-free number for the hotel chain listed below. Identify yourself as an AFT member and mention your AFT + ID# to the operator: 20952. Be sure to book in advance.

QUOTE OF NOTE: Private Medicare Advantage Plans 

"Unlicensed agents are setting up shop in pharmacies, Wal-Marts and nursing home lobbies to prey upon seniors' confusion and concern over their medical care coverage. We have pushed the boundaries to respond to our citizens in need because CMS has not done so. They are more concerned with protecting the [Medicare Advantage] program than protecting the people enrolled in the program."

Kim Holland

Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner

Testimony before the Senate Aging Committee

May 16, 2007

WEB SITE OF THE WEEK: www.cluw.org

Preventing cervical cancer has long been a top priority of the Coalition for Labor Union Women, an affiliated organization of the AFL-CIO serving millions of union women.

Contributors and sources: Bill Cunningham, Pat Longo, Washington Post, Raleigh News & Observer, Arizona Daily Star, Associated Press, Congress Daily, CQ Today, CQ HealthBeat, Inside AFT, Alliance for Retired Americans Friday Alert, Kaiser Health Policy Report. Frank Stella, editor; Mary Boyd, copy editor; Melissa Quick, design.