CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia AARP has it’s eyes on a number of measures moving through the legislature. During Tuesday’s Metronews Talkline West Virginia AARP Executive Director Gaylene Miller and new President Jane Marks discussed their agenda.
“We were hopeful there would be proposal for a modest tax credit for a family care giver, but there doesn’t seem to be much appetite for that this year,” said Miller.
Instead, Miller indicated the organization will focus its lobbying efforts on the ever fluctuating costs of prescription drugs, financial exploitation, and elder abuse issues.
According to Marks they were encouraged with legislation approved a year ago which helped to define in more clear terms the act of elder abuse. This year, a followup bill aims to put teeth into the legislation.
“We saw a bill passed last year that actually defined in more detailed terms what exploitation was, this bill will actually allow that to be enforced,” she said.
Additional funding for adult protective services would also be of interest to Marks and AARP, but it’s unclear how much traction that could get, especially when child protective services is also seeking increased funding. Marks did not discount the importance of the child protective services budget, but noted senior protective services is important as well.
Along those lines, the organization is backing House Bill 4377, a measure which is a bill being pushed by the state Auditor’s Office which empowers financial planners who may suspect pressure on elderly clients.
“They’ll be able to report and potentially take action if Grandma is doing some odd things with her stocks they don’t think makes sense for the strategy they’ve always had in terms of her investments. If they think she’s under undo influence they can now report it and take some action,” Marks said.
Miller added the measure simply allows a hold to be placed on any suspicious transaction until it can be thoroughly explored to make sure it is the decision the client wanted to make.
The organization finds plenty of pitfalls with the costs of prescription drugs. Miller noted the price structure is impossible to navigate, something they are hoping to address with legislation.
“It’s a very complicated and very convoluted market place. There are problems throughout the supply chain, so we’ve decided to concentrate on the manufacturers who set that wholesale price. That’s our first step,” said Miller.