JUlrich – Page 28 – Campbell Area AARP Chapter

Legislative Report…Daniel Nnorth and Claudia Schott

March 13, 2017 by JUlrich

Now that Congress is back in session, they are already talking about cutting Medicare (Still? Again?) and we need ALL of your voices to tell Congress to protect Medicare! Here is the link to contact your Congress members or you can write a letter to them or to Senators Feinstein or Harris stating your wishes. https://action.aarp.org/site/ Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=6199&intcmp=AE-POL-ADVO-HMC-CTABTN-ADV_6199

In a letter to President-elect Donald J. Trump, AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins outlines AARP’s priorities for Americans age 50 and older including protecting Medicare and Social Security, ensuring access to affordable health care coverage, and lowering the cost of prescription drugs. In the letter Jenkins writes to President-elect Trump that “Our nearly 38 million members nationwide and all older Americans are counting on you to protect their Medicare and Social Security benefits, protect their access to affordable health care, and to tackle the high cost of prescription drugs. Throughout the campaign, your statements on these important issues of health and financial security set you apart from many other candidates. Now, as you assume office, older Americans are looking to you to protect them from efforts to cut their benefits, increase their costs, or otherwise harm the crucial programs they rely on.” We hope he takes at least these campaign promises seriously. I hope to have good news for you about this soon.

Don’t have writer’s cramp yet? Here are two more Federal calls to action that you might want to look into! The first one is HR66. This is a congressional attempt to undo a federal rule that allowed California to create our Secure Choice Retirement Savings Act (SB1234). Our Senators Feinstein and Harris need to get an earful from all of us regarding this! It takes away another chance for younger folks to save for their retirement who don’t have ready access to a 401k savings plan from work.

The second one is HR708, the Age Tax. This one is a doozy! Instead of our older citizens (that’s us!) paying “only” three times more than the younger folks for health insurance, this is an attempt to give insurance the carte blanche to charge us thousands more for our healthcare! It’s time to write our Senators!! If you want to write them online: https://action.aarp.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=6267&CMP=EMC-SNG-ADV-OTH-020817 . Here’s more information:

‘Age Rating’ Is Washington-Speak for Overcharging Older Americans

Lipreading Classes

February 10, 2017February 8, 2017 by JUlrich

Back by popular demand, Lipreading (speechreading) Classes returned to the Jewish Community in Los Gatos on Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. There was also a new class offered at the Saratoga Senior Center beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 27. The classes are open to all adults whether or not hearing aids are worn, and whether or not a hearing loss is present. ***The Winter Quarter has just begun and there is still time for some new students. However, as they are ongoing classes, most of the students have already had several classes and if someone wants to begin at the beginning so to speak, they probably should wait until the Fall Quarter 2017. Having said that, people will not be turned down so if they want to join classes in progress.***

The goal of the classes is to improve students’ ability to understand speech, especially in group and/or noisy listening environments. Techniques for identifying individual sounds as well as methods to improve the listening experience in general will be presented. In addition to learning specific speechreading techniques, interpretation of students’ audiograms, maximizing hearing aid performance, brief anatomy and physiology of hearing, prevention of hearing loss and preservation of hearing are among the topics discussed.

Three levels of classes are being offered: Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced. All 3 levels of Lipreading Class are available at the Jewish Community but as the Saratoga Senior Center class is new, only the Beginning Level is available. The classes are being offered through Foothill College; however, there is no fee for these non-credit classes. Each session is 12 weeks long and consists of weekly 2 hour classes.

For additional information call: JCC: 408-357-7492; SSC: 408-868-1254, or the instructor: Marcia Fariss, M. A., F-AAA: 669-444-0LIP. You may also reference her web page: www.gizmology.com/hear. Pre-registration is advised; forms may be obtained by contacting Foothill College: 650-949-7103. However, registration is also available at the first class meeting.