Advocacy

BATON ROUGE, La. – November marks National Family Caregivers Month, a time to recognize the 40 million Americans – including 660,000 from Louisiana – who help older parents, spouses, and other loved ones live independently at home, where they want to be. The unpaid care they provide – managing medications, cooking meals, driving to appointments, performing complex medical tasks and more – is valued at about $6.47 billion in Louisiana alone.

Today, AARP Louisiana released its 2015 Video Voter Guide, which features exclusive interviews with with gubernatorial candidates John Bel Edwards and David Vitter about issues important to older voters in advance of the November 21 runoff.

Today AARP sent a letter urging all members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S Senate to pass a fix for Medicare beneficiaries who face much higher cost increases based on the anticipated announcement that Social Security beneficiaries would not receive a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2016. AARP’s letter specifically asks Congress to protect all Medicare beneficiaries from sharply increased out-of-pocket costs in light of the COLA announcement, requesting specifically that Congress “reduce...the impact of the sudden, sharp increases in the Part B premiums and deductible as soon as possible. Ideally, all Medicare beneficiaries should be held-harmless in the face of no Social Security COLA adjustment.”

The Advocate in Baton Rouge featured a letter to the editor from AARP Louisiana’s Advocacy Director Andrew Muhl today, about Bayou Choices and managed long-term care. You can read it on The Advocate’s site or below.

AARP Louisiana Interim State Director Denise Bottcher issued the following statement today regarding the decision of the Department of Health and Hospitals to delay the implementation of Bayou Choices:

AARP Louisiana has announced that State Representative Edward “Ted” James II is the recipient of the 2014 Legislator of the Year Award for championing issues that enhance the lives of older Louisianans.

Today the nonpartisan AARP Louisiana released voter guides featuring positions from Louisiana Senate and Congressional candidates—in their own words—on critical issues including Social Security, Medicare and financial security. Voters of all ages may view the voter guides at www.aarp.org/yourvote.

Louisiana ranks 37th when it comes to meeting the long-term care needs of older residents, and AARP warns more must be done, at an accelerated pace, to improve across-the-board – but especially when it comes to quality of care and quality of life, and effective transitions. This, according to a new, comprehensive state-by-state Scorecard from AARP with support of the nation’s leading organizations behind quality long-term care, The Commonwealth Fund and SCAN Foundation.

Older Louisianans overwhelmingly support bipartisan legislation to combat age discrimination in the workplace, a new AARP survey shows.

According to a new AARP survey, a majority of Louisianans believe it is important to strengthen consumer protection laws to prohibit excessive annual interest rates for payday loans.