Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action
Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action was formerly Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans.
Officials
As of 2016;
- Robby Stern, President
- Bobby Righi, Administrative Vice President
- Jessica Bonebright, Membership Vice President
Board members Steve Bauck, Kristen Beifus, Maureen Bo, Jessica Bonebright, Tim Burns, Jim Grayson, Frank Irigon, Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, Steve Kofahl, Gene Lux, Mark McDermott, Bruce A. McIntosh, Bonny Oborn, Mildred Ollee, Chuck Richards, Robert Shimabukuro, Ronnie Shure, Sarajane Siegfriedt, Aganita Varkentine, Mike Warren, Katie Wilson.[1]
Elwha River protest
Earth Law Center leader Elizabeth Dunne led nature lovers to the banks of the Elwha River here on Sunday, Sept. 24 2023, to protest plans to log a mature forest in the watershed of the river that provides all the drinking water for this city.
Dunne, an attorney, told the crowd it was “World River Day” and thanked them for joining in celebration of the Elwha. The removal of the Elwha’s two dams, at a cost of $340 million, has become a model for reclaiming rivers here in the U.S. and around the world. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe led that struggle.
Two elected officials joined the World River Day hike—Port Angeles City Council member Navarra Carr, seeking re-election on Nov. 7, and Wendy Rae Johnson, Clallam County Conservation Commissioner.
Sam Woods, a disabled IBEW electrician, brought his salmon carved from virgin cedar, the exact size of a King salmon caught in Alaska, the largest anywhere. “They used to catch 100-pound salmon right here in the Elwha before the dams wiped them out,” Woods said.
Ellen Menshew, an activist with Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action (PSARA), told the crowd the Clallam County Democratic Party and the Legislative District-24 (LD-24) Democrats approved a resolution calling on Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz, head of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), to delay or cancel the Elwha timber sale.
PSARA member Lisa Dekker told the crowd she is active in the movement to save Orca whales, whose survival depends on preserving the salmon. She drew laughter when she reported that she dresses up in an Orca costume at local environmental street events.[2]
58th birthday of Medicare and Medicaid
A big crowd at the Federal Building here Aug. 1 2023 cheered and applauded as Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and others blasted medical insurance companies for reaping billions from fraudulent overcharges to the Medicare Trust Fund while denying urgently-needed care for millions of patients.
The rally sponsored by PSARA (Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action) and their allies celebrated the 58th birthday of Medicare and Medicaid signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 30, 1965.
A giant banner held by protesters in front of the Federal Building read, “Stop Raiding Our Medicare.” Another held by Backbone protesters dressed in black read, “Merchants of Death.”
Jayapal told the crowd she is proud to be the lead sponsor of a bill “Medicare for All” to expand Medicare coverage to the entire population.
“Medical debt is ruining the lives of millions,” Jayapal declared. “Medicare is under threat. I want to make one thing clear: I will fight Medicare privatization tooth and nail!”
She added, “Medicare Advantage is privatizing Medicare and we will not stand for it… Just recognize that if we took the $41 billion—with a ‘b’—that the Medicare Advantage program overcharges the government, we could plow that back into expanding Medicare. We could afford dental and vision. We could eliminate co-pays and deductibles instead of subsidizing private insurance companies.”
Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Washington, D.C.-based Social Security Works, asked the crowd, “Why does the United States have the shortest life expectancy of any developed nation in the world?”
“Lack of health care!” the crowd shouted back in unison.
Seattle City Council member Teresa Mosqueda, who served ten years on the staff of the AFL-CIO, said Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are key benefits in a democratic society, vital to equalizing income in a country with a handful of billionaires and the rest struggling to survive.
PSARA Co-President Jeff Johnson, former president of the Washington Labor Council, chaired the rally. He pointed to a purple papier mache octopus sitting on the sidewalk, each of its tentacles labeled with the name of one of the Medicare Advantage providers. One of them was Amazon’s One Medical.
Claude Burfect, a leader of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), charged that Medicare privatization is stripping millions of their right to health care. He blasted President Donald Trump’s so-called Medicare “Direct Contracting Entities” (DCEs), renamed and re-packaged as “ACO REACH” by the Biden administration. Both opened the door wide for the private takeover of Medicare by private, for-profit outfits, he charged.
Cindy Domingo, a Filipina leader of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, praised PSARA. “Power concedes nothing without a struggle and that is why we are here today,” said Domingo. “We need to stop the overcharging of these private insurance companies that totaled $75 billion… We must educate our communities about the fight for Medicare for All.”
Bryce Walker, a fourth-year student at the University of Washington Medical School and a youth representative of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), said he has seen 2,000 patients ranging from infants and children to senior citizens afflicted with cancer or other lethal diseases.
A delegation led by PSARA Co-President, Karen Richter, went up to meet in the office of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. Cantwell was not present, but the delegation met with Cantwell’s senior staff adviser, Josie McKinley.
After the delegation returned, Richter told the crowd, “It was a pretty good meeting.” McKinley had never heard of PSARA, said Richter, but after McKinley had agreed to meet with the delegation, she read every edition of the Retiree Advocate newsletter, which is filled with commentaries on the menace posed to Medicare by runaway privatization.
Dr. Jaisri Lingappa, a specialist in infectious diseases from Port Townsend, was in the delegation that met with the Cantwell aide. She urged the crowd to “keep up the struggle because his fight is a long-term fight.”
Richard Timmins, a retired veterinarian from Whidbey Island, also joined the delegation. A leader of PSARA, Timmins’ referral to a dermatologist to examine a lump on his ear lobe was rejected by his MA provider, Premera. It metastasized into skin cancer.
“Ms. McKinley was very receptive,” Timmins told this reporter. “She had read our articles about Medicare privatization. I was able to tell my story. She told us they know that this is an issue. But the staff cannot get a statement from Cantwell about privatization.”[3]
Seattle social security protest
Approximately 75 spirited protesters celebrated the 57th anniversary of the enactment of Medicare in Seattle on Friday, July 29 2022, with a picket line and rally outside the Columbia Center chanting, “Whose Medicare? Our Medicare!” and “Medicare is not for profit! Keep your corporate hands off it!”
The Seattle rally and picket line was initiated by Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action and co-sponsored by Health Care is a Human Right Washington, Voices for Health and Healing, and Physicians for a National Health Program WA. Most of the crowd were from King County, reinforced by members from Clallam County, Everett, San Juan Island, Whidbey Island, Bainbridge Island, Vashon Island, and Kitsap Peninsula.
PSARA Co-President Jeff Johnson, retired president of the Washington State Labor Council, chaired the rally, leading the crowd in chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, ACO REACH has got to go!”
PSARA Executive Board member Rick Timmins of Whidbey Island told the rally that it took seven months for his for-profit Medicare Advantage provider to approve treatment of a tumor on his earlobe.
PSARA Education Fund President Robby Stern pointed out that Seattle-based Amazon has dived into the ACO REACH feeding frenzy, purchasing “One Medical” and its subsidiary “Iora” in a $3.9 billion cash buyout.
Faye Guenther, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000 representing 50,000 grocery store workers in Washington State, charged that Wall Street banks and corporations “are getting their greedy fingers into health care. Greed does not help.”
Rachel Berkson, an aide to Rep. Pramila Jayapal, thanked the crowd for supporting Jayapal, who has recruited 54 of her House colleagues to sign a letter to Biden and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra demanding ACO REACH termination.
Seattle City Councilwoman Theresa Mosqueda thundered, “How many times do we have to stand here and say: ‘Don’t privatize Medicare?’” She led the crowd in a chant, “Hands off Medicare! Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security are here to stay.”
Other speakers included Katie Garrow, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of MLK Labor, a central council with 150 unions representing over 100,000 workers, and Dr. Hugh Foy, retired surgeon from Harborview Hospital and the UW Medical system. Both strongly defended Medicare, denouncing privatization and calling for a single-payer Medicare for All system.
A delegation of three—PSARA Co-President Karen Richter, Health Care Is A Human Right WA leader David Loud, and Timmins—went up for a meeting with Regional Director Ulrey and the Division Director of CMS. The group delivered a demand to Ulrey’s boss, Becerra, that the Biden administration terminate ACO REACH and all other schemes to privatize Medicare. Ulrey agreed to share our concerns with Becerra.[4]