By: Guide to Retirement Living Staff

In an effort to empower people with Medicare to speak out about the problems older adults and people with disabilities face accessing good, affordable health care, the Medicare Rights Center (MRC), a national consumer service group, is launching an online Advocacy Network.

“We want to ensure that the voices of people with Medicare who are struggling do not go unheard by the policy makers in Washington,” said Robert M. Hayes, president of MRC.

With 16 years’ experience helping older adults and people with disabilities get good, affordable health care, MRC understands how critical Medicare is to consumers’ lives and is dedicated to bringing their experience to the national debate. MRC’s policy priorities include:

•  Fighting for easy access to affordable prescription drugs
•  Advocating for people with disabilities to get the care they need through Medicare
•  Advancing equal coverage of mental health services
•  Urging adequate support for competent consumer education resources
•  Working to expand the pool of people covered by Medicare to adults ages 55-64
•  Facilitating the letter – writing process, which will encourage more people to advocate for themselves and take advantage of the democratic process.

Newsletters. Each issue of Asclepios, MRC’s weekly health care policy alert, highlights a timely Medicare-related policy issue.

People can visit www.medicarerights.org to participate in MRC’s Advocacy Network and sign up for Asclepios today.

This article was reprinted with permission from Guide to Retirement Living SourceBook, to access the original article and additional senior living resources in VA, MD, DC, DE, PA, NJ click here.