AARP Tells Senators They Will Score Health Care Cloture Vote

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AARP announced tonight they will score the upcoming cloture vote on the health care bill as a “Key Vote.”

In a letter to all senators, AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond says the Monday 1 a.m. cloture vote will be among those the group tells members about when the next election rolls around.

They also are doing a new ad campaign that focuses on older Americans. It will run through Wednesday in Arkansas, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska and North Dakota, states that are home to key Democratic senators and one Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

Read LeaMond’s letter after the jump.

December 19, 2009

Dear Senator:

On behalf of our nearly 40 million members, AARP urges you to support cloture on the Manager’s Amendment in order to improve the underlying health reform bill, and ensure its timely passage by the Senate.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act protects and strengthens Medicare’s guaranteed benefits, and includes smart payment and delivery system reforms to promote care coordination, reduce costly hospital readmissions, and eliminate waste and fraud. The bill also makes critical insurance market reforms and establishes exchanges to give the uninsured and small businesses access to quality affordable plans. Importantly, the legislation also offers consumers new tools to help meet their future long-term care needs.

The Manager’s Amendment builds upon the underlying bill by making insurers more accountable to consumers, protecting choices of doctors, holding down the costs of coverage, and encouraging states to provide long-term care services and supports to people in their homes and communities, rather than in costly institutional settings.

In addition, given assurances by the Majority Leader and the bill managers that any final conference agreement will honor the President’s pledge to close the Medicare Part D coverage gap by 2019, AARP is committed to securing timely passage of this legislation by the Senate and working for further improvements in conference.

Given the importance of bringing this debate to a close and securing timely Senate passage of health care reform legislation, AARP has designated the cloture motion on the Manager’s Amendment a key vote. As part of our ongoing effort to let our members know of action taken on key issues, we will be informing them of how their Senators vote on this cloture motion.

AARP believes the time for delay has ended and the time for action is now. We look forward to working with you to improve this historic legislation as the process advances.

Sincerely,

Nancy A. LeaMond

Executive Vice President for Social Impact

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