President Barack Obama had a town hall meeting today sponsored by AARP. At this town hall, the President explained exactly what health care reform was and why it has to be. President Obama took questions fromt he audience and answered all questions well.
Immediately following the AARP sponsored town hall, CNN allowed Republican Representative from Virginia Eric Cantor to refute President Obama. Representative Cantor did not refute specifically any one item that President Obama said at the town hall. Republican Representative Eric Cantor went on his own spiel of degrading health care reform by reiterating Republican misinformation and flat out lies. In part, I blame the CNN reporter for not forcing the Republican Congressman to stick to specifics of the town hall.
One thing for sure: I can have no respect for the Republican Congressman from Virginia whose sole purpose was to browbeat President Obama and health care form. At the same time, Republican Representative Eric Cantor offered nothing, and for sure, offered the American people nothing but Republican partisanship at its crassest level.
The Pickens Plan: For those who would like to become an active participant in a solution for our nations energy needs I urge you to join with T.Boone Pickens in his quest for a cleaner planet through alternative energy.
Also see Green Wave Energy: Green Wave was founded by Mark Holmes and was formulated for viable alternative energy solutions. Green Wave Energy is promoting state-of-the-art energy-saving products and services throughout the country.
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Alternative EnergySource: David Apperson
url: http://veterans.barackobama.com/page/community/tag/alternative-energy
Sen. Grassley knows a good story when he sees it
AARP, asked by the Iowa senator to explain its profits from insurance plans it touts, suspends marketing of one of them. Gil Cranberg laments that the press has pretty much ignored this important story—and points out that it’s not too late for reporters and editors to get in on it.
By Gilbert Cranberg
AARP, which purports to be the seniors' friend, has a lot of explaining to do to Iowa's Senator Charles Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. In a scorching letter to AARP, Grassley implies that the organization is more interested in profiting from seniors than in serving them.......
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=00301
PS. Senator Russ Feingold for Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (replacing Biden)
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McCain better watch out - Palin stated yesterday that Biden was too old...."I've been hearing about him since I was in second grade." Crowd laughs
Palin is now in dangerous territory. The AARP and Boomers do not appreciate negative speech about older Americans. McCain is older than Biden - so it comes back to haunt the McCain/Palin ticket. Biden as the Vice Presidential candidate has a wealth of knowledge and can help and advise President Obama on successful implementation of his platform.
OBAMA HAS ALWAYS TREATED McCAIN WITH RESPECT AND HAS NEVER MADE JOKES ABOUT McCAIN'S AGE. OBAMA IS A GENTLEMAN WITH INTEGRITY AND RESPECT FOR ALL AMERICANS, YOUNG, OLD, AND IN-BETWEEN.
PLEASE VOTE FOR OBAMA
Senior citizens are among our most vulnerable and they will vote for a president that they think can reverse the course of our economy and fix our broken healthcare system. McCain has brought into serious doubt whether he has the ability or will to tackle either of these problems and tried a method of distraction to keep everyone's eyes off our economy and healthcare system in crisis. It is time to regain the focus on these issues for Obama. Recent polling in Florida as of yesterday indicates that Florida is back in play for Obama. If Obama takes Florida from McCain, Obama wins hands down.
Full article is here. "McCain's problem with Florida Voters"
Enjoy
8:46pm thursday june 5 siting here watching fox news on ch 360 hannity show an all i been hearing for the last few months on how he hates Obama rec how ever on the same hand Mr hannity seems tobe doing the same thing Mr wright is doing hate speech is hate speech no matter whos saying it weather it be a preacher are talk show host if you really open your mind and look at it Mr hannity is no better then Mr wright ....wright was talking about bills wife like she was trash and hannity he is talking about Sen Obama like hes trash so tell me whats the dif
Written by
Anthony Duane Hosea
Are you new to the Internet? Or are you pretty savvy in your work setting but overwhelmed by the web-based Obama campaign? Well, this is the place for you!
I'm trying to organize a corps of people (generally 55-70 but no limits imposed! :-) ) who will go out to senior centers and assisted-living developments. The idea will be to bring a self-contained internet unit--that is, something that will be able to connect to the Internet and show people the sites that will help them find out about Obama. I'm thinking along the lines of a recent article by Stephanopoulos setting out how to make up your mind about candidates.
I think that older people are pretty fact-based and what they need is access to information of interest to them. I'd like to bring lots of paper information, too, and, if possible, line up younger people to bring volunteer work to THEM--like mailing letters to their friends.
Published in WSJ, Tuesday, April 17, 2007
AARP to Offer Health Coverage To Wider Group
By VANESSA FUHRMANSApril 17, 2007; Page D2
The powerful senior lobby AARP announced an ambitious expansion in the health-care products it markets to older Americans, targeting in particular the roughly 7 million who are still under the age of 65 and have no coverage.
As part of the expansion, the 38 million-member organization renewed and expanded a longstanding contract with UnitedHealth Group Inc. to continue to sell AARP-branded indemnity health plans, Medicare supplement policies and drug benefit plans. It will also market private, comprehensive Medicare plans, known as Medicare Advantage, under the AARP name. The group also struck a new partnership with Aetna Inc. to design, underwrite and administer a range of health plans for the under-65 set.
AARP says its move is an effort to improve the health and to bring more affordable and stable health care coverage to a population that increasingly finds it out of reach. Unless they're covered by an employer, many Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 find individual insurance either too expensive or simply unavailable from health insurers eager to avoid customers in declining health.
The deals also illustrate how providing health care for older Americans has become a big business, even as AARP tries to remain a consumer health advocate for its members.
The deals are a coup for both insurers, though Medicare still represents the much larger share of the business. UnitedHealth's existing partnership with AARP has already helped make it the largest seller of Medicare products, and generates roughly $5 billion in annual revenue just from selling Medicare supplement plans. For the first time, though, the insurers' income will also be tied to whether they improve the health care of plan members, provide easy-to-read policy materials and reach certain benchmarks in corporate governance, responsibility and diversity, AARP said.
AARP executives say the deals will help them reach their target of providing health insurance products to roughly 14 million people by 2014, up from 7 million today. Through its new and expanded partnerships with Aetna and UnitedHealth, AARP expects to generate some $4.4 billion in health care-related royalties over the next seven years, $1.5 billion more than its previous projections. AARP's CEO, Bill Novelli, said much of the money would be ploughed back into other health care access and affordability initiatives.
AARP's scale would help keep a lid on the new plans' costs, executives said.
Although Aetna would still underwrite, or price premiums individually based on a customer's health and demographics, it would be required to take a more flexible approach than many commercial insurers currently do. Members who bought the plans also would have access to disease management programs and other tools designed to monitor and improve chronic conditions such as diabetes—and which are typically only available through an employer group plan.
Likewise in the Medicare realm, UnitedHealth will be required to commit to providing AARP-branded Medicare Advantage plans in a given market for at least two years. Federal law requires insurers to stick to providing the plans a minimum one year.
AARP said the plans would become available at the beginning of 2008.
