Steve Gardner

Bill Johnston-Walsh Named AARP’s State Director in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Voters 50+ Oppose the Chained CPI, Believe Social Security Should Not Be Cut to Reduce the Deficit

Governor’s Meeting with Secretary Sebelius Represents Positive Step Toward State Medicaid Expansion

Note: The following article by AARP State President Jim Palmquist is running in newspapers across PA.

AARP Pennsylvania today applauded approval by a state House committee of legislation that ensures an estimated 50,000 older residents won’t lose prescription drug coverage by excluding Medicare Part B premiums and Social Security cost of living increases from PACE and PACENET income eligibility guidelines.

This week AARP Pennsylvania volunteers and staff are meeting with nine members of the state’s Congressional delegation in their district offices, urging them to oppose $5.84 billion in cuts to our state’s Social Security COLA and veterans’ benefits that would occur if a measure known as Chained CPI is adopted. The office visits by AARP Pennsylvania volunteers follow weeks of letters, advertisements, petitions, a new Chained CPI Calculator, e-mails and phone calls asking Congress not to cut Social Security benefits and to have a separate conversation about Social Security’s future.

AARP Pennsylvania today announced its opposition to a newly-approved state Public Utility Commission order that would force customers to pay higher rates for electricity by making default electricity service plans more volatile and costly.

AARP Pennsylvania today said that while Governor Corbett’s 2013-14 budget proposal released today increases state spending for programs helping older adults remain at home, the plan lacks forward-looking solutions to other issues of interest to the nation’s fourth-largest senior population.

AARP Pennsylvania today applauded Governor Corbett’s pledge to channel an additional $50 million in Lottery proceeds to existing home and community-based programs serving older Pennsylvanians in his proposed 2013-14 state budget as an important first step toward balancing the state’s long-term care systems and supports.

AARP Pennsylvania Advocacy Director Ray Landis today told a State Senate Panel that the Corbett Administration’s investigation into privatizing the operations of the state lottery must ensure predictable revenue streams and generate new resources for long-neglected home and community-based services programs serving older adults.