Category: Tia Albright
Democrats Gearing Up for Changes in Medicare Drug Plans
DRUGS
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
December 12, 2006
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 – Democrats hit the midterm election campaign trail this year promising to repeal a ban on the government’s negotiating with manufacturers for lower prescription drug prices. But as the January shift of power nears, the new majority must prepare to face some hurdles.
The Medicare Part D prescription drug program, which Congress created in 2003, has been criticized for not lowering prices enough but praised for being less expensive and more effective than expected.
Congressman-elect Christopher Murphy (D-5th), who pushed hard for health care reform as a state senator and in his campaign against Rep. Nancy Johnson, said that reducing constraints on the government is his primary concern.
“There is no way to explain the prohibition of bulk purchasing, except that it was asked for by the drug companies,” Murphy said. “To me and a lot of people in Connecticut, it makes sense to immediately give the government the power to negotiate prices in order to reduce the cost of the program.”
Johnson, an author of the Part D legislation, has praised the current Medicare program.
Part D, which added drug coverage to Medicare, includes dozens of stand-alone drug insurance plans. Most plans pay 75 percent of prescription costs up to $2,400 each year and 95 percent when beneficiaries’ costs exceed $3,850. But between those two amounts—the so-called coverage gap or “doughnut hole”—most plans cover none of the costs. There are only a few plans, with higher premiums, that offer coverage of some or all drug costs during the gap.
Connecticut’s prescription drug plans offer 51 coverage options, with monthly premiums ranging from $13.40 to $87.40. Fifteen of the plans seek to alleviate the problems associated with the doughnut hole by offering coverage during the gap. But only two of these will cover both generic and preferred brand-name drugs; the 13 others will cover generic drugs only.
Murphy said that allowing the government to directly negotiate prescription drug prices would help lower the cost.
Despite the debate over the government’s power to negotiate the costs and the extent of coverage during the gap, some experts and pharmaceutical representatives argue that the program has surpassed expectations, saved money and has a high satisfaction rate among beneficiaries.
Marilyn Moon, the director of the health program at the American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, said that even if the Democrats lift the negotiating ban, they would need the cooperation of the government’s prominent health care officials.
“I think the government certainly could negotiate for lower prices, but it’s difficult to take that one restriction, repeal it and assume that everything will work fine,” said Moon, who is a former trustee of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.
The Democrats would need the cooperation of Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt, whose department is responsible for decisions on health care, Moon said.
“He certainly said that he wouldn’t do it and that he doesn’t want to do it, so that is a major complication,” Moon said.
Murphy said he hopes Leavitt will decide to cooperate, but if not, it would be necessary to make direct negotiations mandatory.
A September survey by J.D. Power and Associates found that nearly 80 percent of the 3,400 beneficiaries surveyed were satisfied with the current program.
Urban Institute president Robert D. Reischauer, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said the program has performed surprisingly well.
“Our worst fears have not come to pass,” he said. “There are problems with the drug benefit, but they’re embedded in the structure imposed by legislation.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could get prescription drugs cheaper than they are being sold for, but if Medicare is going to set prices and say they will not pay anything higher, that is not negotiation but imposition, Reischauer said.
The program is saving seniors hundreds of dollars a year while helping them live healthier lives, said Ken Johnson, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents drug companies.
“The negotiations are occurring – as they should be – between prescription drug plans, several of which already purchase medicines on behalf of tens of millions of Americans, and pharmaceutical companies,” he said.
The program was expected to cost the government $633 billion over 10 years, but that estimate has been lowered $516 billion, said Jeff Nelligan, director of media affairs for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The Medicare Part D drugs benefit has enrolled 22.5 million seniors since it took effect in January. Experts had estimated that the average monthly premium for 2006 would be $37 per month and close to $40 for 2007. However, the average 2006 premium was $24 and will remain the same in 2007, Nelligan said.
“Competition among the insurance plans and the drug manufacturers has resulted in the low prices that will continue into 2007,” Nelligan said.
A poll conducted in early November shows that a majority of Americans favor allowing the government to negotiate prescription drug prices.
In the survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit foundation focused on health care issues, 85 percent of the 1,867 adults polled, including majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents, said they favored government negotiations.
John C. Rother, policy director for AARP, a lobby for senior citizens, said he thinks that there is more than one way for the government to help lower drug prices.
“The current program has been remarkably successful, given all of the obstacles faced, but it hasn’t done what many of us hoped it would do, in a sense that it hasn’t put enough pressure on the manufacturers to lower prices,” he said.
Rother suggested that the government can do a number of other things to pressure the drug companies, including legalizing importation of drugs from Canada and other countries, increasing research on which drugs work best and pricing them accordingly, and restricting practices that hike prices – such as direct-to-consumer advertising.
“Lifting the ban is certainly the first step to doing a number of things that people think would improve the prescription drug plan,” Moon said. “So, I think it’s not a bad thing to do, but Congress would have to make other changes to ensure that it happens and it’s effective.”
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Connecticut Organization Participates in Pageant of Peace
PAGEANT
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
December 7, 2006
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 – Participants at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree Thursday praised the historically themed ornaments donated by the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford.
“I think that the ornaments hanging on the Connecticut tree are a great representation of the state’s history and spirit,” said Devon Miller, a Greenwich native.
The Stowe center gave a collection of handmade ornaments for display on Connecticut’s Christmas tree along the “Pathway of Peace,” which consists of 56 trees representing the states, territories and the District of Columbia. One organization from each state provides ornaments that represent that state’s history.
Beth Giard, collections manager for the center, said, “We donated the ornaments as a way to represent the state of Connecticut in the pageant and to get out the message of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s to the nation.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in 1811 in Litchfield and is best known for her novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” written as a testament to the hardships of slavery.
The center’s ornaments are based on its “American Woman’s Home Collection.” They are miniature quilts screened with patterns of artifacts from the collection, including lace, pillows, ceramic plates, pitchers and bowls.
The first National Christmas Tree was lit by Calvin Coolidge in the Ellipse south of the White House in 1923. Last night was President Bush’s turn. The pageant will continue until early January.
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Murphy and Courtney Vote for Murtha
HOYER
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
November 16, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 – Connecticut’s incoming Democratic representatives voiced their support Thursday for newly elected House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), even though both said they voted for John Murtha (D-Pa.).
Rep.-elect Christopher Murphy said he voted for Murtha because Murtha is a good friend of Rep. John Larson (D-1st). “I supported Murtha,” Murphy said. “He and John Larson are great friends, and a friend of John Larson’s is a friend of mine.”
Rep.-elect Joseph Courtney (D-2nd), who praised Murtha’s stance on the war in Iraq, said he thinks the controversy surrounding the vote will clear quickly.
“I think it was a hard-fought race, but these are experienced leaders who understand that the race ended when the vote was tallied,” Courtney said. “It’s time to focus on the agenda, which is to get change moving in this country.”
The controversy began when Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) publicly endorsed Murtha for House majority leader. Hoyer, a 26-year member of Congress, and the current House minority whip, was considered to be the favorite before Pelosi’s announcement.
Hoyer defeated Murtha 149-86.
Murphy said that regardless of his vote for Murtha he will be a supporter for the elected leader.
“I think Steny Hoyer is going to be an outstanding leader for our caucus,” he said. “He was a great help to a lot of freshman [during the campaigns], and he’s going to be an even better leader as we head into the majority.”
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Murphy Reflects on Election
MURPHY
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
November 15, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15– Connecticut’s competitive House and Senate races made headlines across the nation, and now that the voters have spoken the 33-year-old winner of the 5th District congressional race is reflecting on the results.
Christopher Murphy, one of the youngest members of the 110th Congress, said that the intertwining of special interests and lobbying with policy decisions in Washington sparked the change.
“I think voters made a clear statement in the 5th District Nov. 7 that they wanted things to change in Washington,” he said.
During the campaign the candidates debated key issues, including health care, energy costs and employment.
“[The voters] wanted their issues and their problems to come first,” Murphy said. “The voice of the district won over the special interests in this election.”
He said that going into the election he felt that the conventional wisdom that the challenger is always the underdog and can’t win against a longstanding power was incorrect.
Murphy handily defeated Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson, who after 12 terms raised twice as much money as Murphy did. This is the second time Murphy went up against Johnson. In 1996, he served as campaign manager for Charlotte Koskoff, who came close to defeating the long-standing congresswoman.
“Oftentimes we don’t try to open doors just because we think they’re locked,” he said. “And oftentimes they’re ready to be opened.”
In his victory speech Murphy told supporters, “For the rest of your lives, do not ever, ever, let anyone tell you ever again that a thing cannot be done.”
He reiterates that message as he spends his first week in Washington attending meetings, holding press conferences, picking his office and adjusting to the responsibility he has undertaken.
“I hope that our election was a signal to people in Connecticut and throughout the country that there are no obstacles too great when the stakes are high,” Murphy said.
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Dodd Welcomes Murphy to Congress
FRESHMAN
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
November 14, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – Sen. Christopher Dodd joined fellow Democratic members of the Connecticut delegation on Tuesday to introduce Reps.-elect Christopher Murphy (D-5th) and Joe Courtney (D-2nd) to Washington.
“I want to welcome Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney to Washington,” said Dodd. “Last Tuesday showed us that people want a change in the government, they want to see us do what’s right.”
Dodd, whose mother’s maiden name was Murphy, introduced Murphy as “a man without sin.” He said his mother always told him that all people were originally named Murphy, but their names were changed when they sinned.
Murphy, dressed in a blue shirt and gold tie representing the state’s colors, said that Connecticut’s vote on Nov. 7 was a vote to change the tone in government.
He said he intends to honor the message his constituents sent by working across party lines.
Murphy defeated 12-term Rep. Nancy Johnson in the election.
“I intend to honor the message Connecticut voters sent by working across party lines,” Murphy said.
Dodd said he looks forward to working with Murphy in the 110th Congress and will do what he can to help create the change that Connecticut’s voters desire in the government.
This isn’t the first time Dodd and Murphy have worked together. While in college, Murphy was an intern in the Washington office of the five-term senator.
Murphy said that the last two days have been a “whirlwind” that the experience has been “humbling” and that this is an opportunity for Connecticut to have an unprecedented voice in Congress.
“There is no rest for the weary,” Murphy said.
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Dodd into High-Level Chairmanship
BANKING
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
November 14, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – The incoming Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking, House and Urban Affairs Committee vowed Tuesday to work across party lines to make effective decisions.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-CT, who will chair the Banking Committee next year, had breakfast with the outgoing chairman, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL, and discussed the committee’s future.
“We will be working together and we will cooperate when we can and we’ll never let [party lines] separate us,” Dodd said.
Shelby said that he looks forward to working with Dodd to help move the committee’s agenda.
After taking over as chairman, Dodd said, he hopes to use the knowledge he’s gained as a five-term senator to make significant strides in the committee.
“I’d like to clean up where we can clean up,” Dodd said. “I’m prepared to get some things done, and I think the most important issues are security, prosperity and opportunity.”
He also mentioned the he is looking into working on issues related to hedge funds and flood insurance.
After 26 years as a member of the committee, Dodd will become chairman because Paul Sarbanes, the current senior Democrat, is retiring in January.
“I don’t know if anyone has served this long and not been chairman,” Dodd quipped.
He said he is working on building a staff and looks forward to traveling around the country in support of banking issues.
Dodd is also a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and is the senior Democrat on the Rules and Administration Committee, though he is passing up that panel’s gavel in favor of the Banking Committee chairmanship.
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New Bill to Extent Special Inspector General
IRAQ
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
November 14, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – The Senate voted Tuesday to continue the work of the agency that acts as watchdog on the billions of dollars being spent for the reconstruction of Iraq.
Sen. Lieberman, I-Conn., co-sponsored the amendment that passed on a voice vote and would extend until the fall of 2008 the work of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Under the previous terms the office would expire Oct. 1, 2007. The measure was attached to a bill authorizing military construction.
“This was a critically necessary office to create,” Lieberman said. “Imagine what would have happened with the expenditure of billions of dollars if the Special Inspector General Stuart Bowen, and his first rate team, had not been at work.”
Bowen’s office oversees approximately $32 billion in contracts and grants for Iraq reconstruction. The organization estimates that the audits, investigations and inspections have saved the government approximately $1.82 billion, according to a press release from Lieberman’s office.
Lieberman said the office determined that Halliburton, a company that provides products and services to oil and gas industry, wasted $75 million on a failed pipeline project, and found that the government lost track of thousands pistols, assault rifles and other weapons distributed to Iraqi authorities.
The office has issued 73 audit reports and 65 product assessments, which has resulted in the arrest of five people, four convictions and the seizure of $17 million in assets, according to the release.
Earlier in the day Lieberman joined three other senators at a press conference promoting the extension for the office. The senators on Monday introduced separate legislation that would do what the amendment does.
The senators said that the office must be continued because it has helped root out millions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse.
“The special inspector general must be allowed to continue his aggressive work on behalf of our country and our taxpayers as long as their money, our money, is being spent in Iraq,” Lieberman said.
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Connecticut Native Makes Her Photographs Soar
RUSSO
The New Britain Herald
Tia Nichole Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
November 7, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 – Aviation, beginning with the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk in 1903, is considered one of the greatest technological advances in human history. Now, a Smithsonian photographer is taking it to a new level.
Carolyn Russo, a photographer at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and a Norwalk native, is putting her love for photography and aeronautics on display in her newest exhibition, “In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight.”
In her third-floor office, tucked behind a crowded photography studio and surrounded by darkrooms, the 41-year-old pulls out a box of prints and points to a 24-by-24-inch photograph of the vibrant, red, heart-shaped tail of the Smithsonian’s 1931 Wittman Buster, a midget racing plane. The image pops against a black background.
The photo is part of “In Plane View,’ an exhibit that consists of 65 color photographs of artifacts in the air-and-space craft collection at the Smithsonian. Russo spent many nights during the past three years taking photographs in the empty museum using a medium-format Hasselblad film camera and a strobe light.
“These projects are important in my professional life,” Russo said. “I think ‘In Plane View’ will be important because it illustrates how an artist views aircrafts within a contemporary view of aviation.”
The three-year project, which Russo started work on during her pregnancy with son Jack, now 2, is set to debut at the National Air and Space Museum in March before touring the United States. A forthcoming book will be available in fall 2007.
Along with the 24-by-24-inch and 36-by-36-inch images of engines and aircrafts, the exhibit will feature commentary from historic aviators such as Jimmy Doolittle, Igor Sikorsky and Allan Lockheed. Combining the photographs with the quotes is just one of the ways Russo shows her appreciation for aviation, history and tradition.
Her mother, Joan, a New Britain native who now lives in Colorado, said Russo’s small-town Connecticut roots have provided her with an appreciation for family, an unwavering work ethic and an expansive imagination.
“The Connecticut values that Carolyn has are that she is family-oriented, a real old-fashioned girl who loves the holidays and spending quiet times with her children,” Joan Russo said.
Carolyn’s dedication to Connecticut runs deep: In a quiet quest to keep the state close to her, she refused to give up her Connecticut driver’s license until five years ago, even though she has not resided there since the early 1980s.
“I didn’t really appreciate Connecticut until I left, but I like being from Connecticut, we have good values up there,” she said.
Those values are evident in the mess of photographs of her sons, Max, 7, and Jack, that plaster the wall behind her desk. The two blond-haired boys beam into their mother’s camera lens. It is a reminder of all the challenges of working parents.
Max attends a local elementary school near the family’s home in Manassas, Va., and Jack spends his days playing with the children of other working parents at the Smithsonian’s childcare center.
It is Halloween in Washington, and while most parents are buying last minute bags of Tootsie Pops or putting finishing touches on their spooky spider webs, Russo is cooped up in her office trying to finalize research for her upcoming project and preparing for her exhibition.
Unlike in years past, Russo’s sons are wearing store-bought costumes. “I used to make their costumes, but I don’t have time for that right now,” she said.
Russo’s time constraints are further complicated by her husband’s career. Dr. Robert Craddock is a geologist for the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the museum – a job that frequently requires him to travel to Hawaii and Australia, among other places.
The two met in an elevator – as he recalls it – at the museum in late 1988, but, he said, she ignored him. Russo does not remember the meeting at all, but instead recollects meeting him out at a nightclub in town. The couple was married in 1992 at Norwalk’s St. Matthews Church, where she had been christened.
“As a working mother, there probably isn’t anything harder that I could ask her to do than let me go away for a couple of weeks at a time,” Craddock said. “She always lets me go out of respect for me.”
Russo said that although she picks up more slack by letting Craddock travel now, she knows in the future he will do the same for her, particularly for her newest project tentatively titled “The Art of the Airport Tower.”
The project will involve Russo traveling to various airport control towers in the United States and possibly around the world.
Russo came to the museum in 1988 with a degree in photography from the Massachusetts College of Art. What began as an entry-level job has developed into “a dream job” that allows her to pursue aviation photography projects that interest her.
Her first book, “Women and Flight: Portraits of Contemporary Women Pilots,” was published in 1997. A seven-year traveling exhibit of the photographs complemented the book, highlighting the women who have made great strides to be respected in aviation.
“I believe pilots portrayed in ‘Women and Flight’ offer inspiration not only to the current and future generation of women pilots, but to all of us,” Russo wrote in the last line of the book’s introduction.
She said the book inspired her to set goals and know that she can reach them if she works hard enough.
In 2003, when Max was a baby, she published “Artifacts of Flight.” It received awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the American Association of Museums.
Looking to the future, Craddock said he is in no rush to see their lives change because “the girl who once ignored me on the elevator now calls me to see when I’m coming home.”
Russo said that she hopes in 10 years they will both still be working at the museum doing the jobs they love.
Russo’s boss, Dr. Ted Maxwell, associate director for the Department of Collections and Research at the museum, said that Russo’s small-town values, good education and love of aviation have helped make her the talented, respected photographer that she is today.
“Carolyn is one of the many talented Connecticut natives that work at the Smithsonian,” Maxwell said. “I think we’re going to see a lot more of Carolyn in the future, and she’s going to continue to expand her role in flight and at the Smithsonian.”
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Connecticut Congress Members Ranked by Veterans Group
IAVA
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
October 26, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 – A non-partisan advocacy organization representing American veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan praised Connecticut’s senators last week for their continued support of the military, but said Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson has some work to do.
“I think by far Connecticut’s delegation is better than most states,” said Paul Rieckhoff , the founder and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
Last week the group issued a report card grading the members of Congress on how they voted on issues the organization identified as affecting troops and veterans and their families. The grades were based on 155 votes in the Senate and 164 in the House.
Issues the ratings were based on ranged from health care and military death gratuities to emergency supplemental appropriations.
Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd, who ranked highest among his Connecticut colleagues with an “A-”, voted with the organization on 132 votes. Sen. Joseph Lieberman received a “B+”, voting with the organization on 94 votes.
“I have great respect for the men and women of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and the work they have done to advocate on behalf of our troops deployed in harm’s way,” Dodd said.
The families and troops need the government’s support now more than ever, he added.
Lieberman said that as a member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services he has supported legislation to help military personnel and their families.
“I believe we owe our veterans a special debt, and I have worked hard to ensure they receive the recognition they deserve, and the support and healthcare they have been promised,” Lieberman said.
Rieckhoff said that the senators’ grades put them among the highest on the list.
The ratings, announced Friday, represented an effort to create transparency and distinguish the members of Congress who truly support the troops from those who “wrap themselves in the flag” without actually voting in the military’s best interest, Rieckhoff said.
Johnson tied for the lowest grade in Connecticut, a “C+.” She voted with the organization on 115 votes. Rep. Rob Simmons also received a “C+.”
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“Anything below an ‘A’ or a high ‘B’ is unacceptable,” Rieckhoff said.
He said Johnson’s vote against expanding the military health care system for members of the National Guard and Reserves is an example of a lack of support for the troops.
Johnson’s campaign spokesperson, Brain Schubert, did not respond to questions about the ranking, but did say that the Veterans of Foreign Wars Political Action Committee endorsed Johnson for Congress.
Of the 1,500 veterans who are members of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, 350 are from Connecticut, according to Rieckhoff.
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$1.4 Million Given to New Britain for Head Start Program
HEADSTART
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
October 24, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24– New Britain will receive $1.4 million in federal funds to help promote child development and increase educational initiative for low-income children.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Head Start program made the grant to aid the city’s effort to prepare children from low-income families for kindergarten, Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman, both Democrats, announced Friday.
“Head Start enriches the lives of children and families by providing early learning to prepare them for school as well as health and comprehensive family services,” Dodd said. “These resources are essential and have proven to show great returns for millions of America’s children.”
Marlo Greppone, executive assistant for the Human Resources Agency of New Britain, said that low-income children who participate in the Head Start program enter kindergarten with confidence and are ready to learn in a structured environment because they have experienced it in the program’s classrooms.
“The money will help our agency continue to provide transportation and nutritional services, access to an on-site nurse to our students, and educational programming,” Greppone said.
New Britain’s Head Start program prepares children ages three to five for kindergarten by placing them in preschool classrooms where they learn to adjust to a school schedule and learn basic social skills at the same time they are taught the basic educational skills, including the ABCs and other beginning educational material.
“The main goal of the Head Start program is to provide services to low-income children in the New Britain community that will prepare them for school,” Greppone said.
In 2005 Connecticut received $51 million for Head Start and enrolled 7,126 children in the program. More than 21 million children nationwide have participated in Head Start since it begn in 1965.
“These new Head Start funds are a small investment in our children’s future, and will go a long way to giving our kids the boost they need to succeed in school,” Lieberman said.
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