What would the AARP like to see in a national health care plan?
We have to make sure that everybody 50 and older has a choice of health care plans because they are the high-risk group. Not addressing this will ultimately drive up costs because the influx of Baby Boomers is going to tax the system. We’d also recommend strengthening Medicare and Medicaid by lowering costs through digitizing medical records and eliminating waste. $700 billion of medical spending is inefficient. We can strengthen the system with the money we’re already spending. The public hears a lot about preventive care. Where does that factor in? It’s our last major initiative. If we could help people stay well before they get into treatment facilities and chronic care programs, that’s when we will see significant savings. We need to continue to push nutritional programs and get better in having conversations within families about end-of-life issues. We spend more money in the last six months of our lives than we do the rest of our lifetimes. AARP believes that if we do these thing
