Health & Wellbeing

AARP Nebraska is a member of the Aging Nebraskans Task Force created by the Nebraska Legislature. The task force recently released a state plan for coping with Alzheimer's Disease to help meet the needs of patients and caregivers. Here is a summary provided by the Alzheimer's Association Nebraska Chapter.

Attention Nebraska family caregivers! You may be caring for an older parent or loved one helping them to live independently in their own homes. Chances are that you have a lot of responsibility for your family member’s well-being, and now there’s support in place to make life a little bit easier.

State Senator John McCollister of Omaha has introduced LB 1032, the Transitional Health Insurance Program Act. The bill will provide affordable healthcare coverage to tens of thousands of hard-working Nebraskans who don’t have insurance and can’t afford it.

AARP Nebraska has endorsed the Home Care Consumer Bill of Rights Act. LB 698, introduced by State Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha, would spell out protections for Nebraskans who receive home care services to help them stay independent and reduce their need to move into a nursing home. The bill would apply to Nebraskans over the age of 60 and younger persons with disabilities.

Ensuring that Nebraska’s nearly 200,000 family caregivers know how to safely look after their loved ones when they’re discharged from the hospital tops the list of measures AARP will champion at the State Capitol during the 2016 legislative session.

Nebraskans age 45-plus strongly support proposals to help family caregivers when their older parents, spouses or other loved ones go into the hospital and as they transition home, according to a new AARP statewide survey of 800 registered voters.

Do you know someone with dementia?

About 33,000 older Nebraskans currently have Alzheimer’s disease. That number is expected to jump by more than 20 percent in the next ten years as the population ages and the oldest boomers turn 80.

Last night the U.S. Senate voted on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015 (H.R. 2) that permanently replaces the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula used to calculate reimbursements to physicians under Medicare. The Senate also voted on the Cardin-Vitter “Seniors’ Amendment” which was a Key Vote for AARP.