Labor Union Blog

Alliance for Retired Americans member Priscilla King (left) joined Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (center) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (right) for the launch of the health care bill.

Priscilla King, an Alliance for Retired Americans member from New Hampshire, got the chance to join House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) for yesterday’s unveiling of the House’s historic health care reform bill. 

King noted that one of the many ways the bill would improve our health system is by closing the “donut hole” that affects seniors who gets prescription drugs through Medicare.

The current structure of Medicare’s drug coverage leaves a $1,700 gap if your costs are more than $2,830 a year. King and her husband have been victims of that flawed policy and have gone into debt to pay for the drugs they need.

Says King: 

I think it is wrong that when you are in the donut hole you must keep paying your premiums, but get no benefits in return. I want to thank Speaker Pelosi, Representative Shea-Porter and everyone here for standing up for seniors and closing the donut hole. America’s seniors need help more than the big insurance companies do. We must pass this bill right away! 

Here’s more news from the battle for health care reform: 

• In a new video, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says health care reform is moving forward and asks voters nationwide to contact their senators and ask them to pass it.
• New polls in Arkansas and Indiana show that voters in those states think reform legislation should include a public health insurance option.
• Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times, says we’re in a “defining moment” for health care reform.
• Matthew Yglesias points out the often unspoken life-and-death stakes of reform.
• The House vote on the health care bill—calculated to reduce the deficit in the long term—should take place in the next two weeks.