Seniors Particularly Vulnerable Under New Plan

​B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
 
B’nai B’rith is disappointed that the United States House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA). The act passed by a vote of 217 to 213. We strongly urge the Senate to reject the House plan, which would have a negative consequence for many communities, including low-income seniors.
 
The bill allows states to waive important pre-existing conditions protections, which would allow insurance companies to charge people higher premiums based on their health. This could make access to quality health care extremely difficult for seniors, who often have more health care needs than other groups, despite the potential for additional funding for so-called high risk pools of people. We are concerned that the additional $8 billion in the Upton Amendment set aside for such groups is not enough of a cushion to properly provide health care for people with pre-existing conditions. 
 
Low-income seniors with pre-existing conditions, like cancer, diabetes and heart disease, cannot afford higher premiums, which could effectively lower their quality of life by forcing those of limited means to make difficult choices on how to spend their fixed incomes: choosing, for instance, between paying rent or paying for medicines.
 
The AHCA provisions also would allow insurance companies to charge older adults much more than younger adults for their premiums. This provision could mean the cost of a premium for an older adult is five times the amount that a younger person pays. This is a dramatic increase over the current Affordable Care Act. 
 
Additionally, B’nai B’rith is concerned about the plan’s changes to Medicaid. Funding Medicaid through a per capita cap program, or a block grant, places unnecessary strains on state budgets, which in turn, could negatively impact low-income seniors. For example, nursing facilities and community based services which help countless seniors, could be negatively impacted by the potential decrease in federal funding.   
 
We are also troubled that the AHCA will make the Medicare Part A Trust Fund go insolvent more quickly because of the repeal of the .9 percent Hospital Insurance trust fund payroll tax. According to the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, repealing the Medicare Part A .9 percent Hospital Insurance trust fund payroll tax on wages above $200,000 per individual or $250,000 per couple will increase the trust fund’s insolvency rate and thus make Medicare more financially vulnerable.
 
The AHCA allows states to waive out of essential health benefits, and insurance companies could sell plans that don’t include outpatient care, emergency services, hospitalization, prescription drugs, lab work and preventative care. Older Americans benefit from these services, and waiving out these benefits could drive up health care costs.
 
This plan has a patent disregard for the true health care needs of too many Americans, including seniors.
 
B’nai B’rith, which has long been an advocate for the health and safety of older adults, has spoken out in favor of shoring up the existing Affordable Care Act, which provides some important protections for seniors and those with disabilities.

Presents Check to ZIV Medical Center for Vital Medical Equipment

​B’nai B’rith International has used its Disaster Relief Fund to assist the ZIV Medical Center’s expanding efforts to treat wounded Syrians and provide medical equipment that is not already funded by Israel’s government.  B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem Director Alan Schneider presented a check to ZIV Medical Center Director Dr. Salman Zarka in Zefat, Israel, on April 30.
 
In addition to this project, the fund will provide aid for another humanitarian relief project for children and infants who have been displaced by the war and are living near Israel’s border with Syria. The B’nai B’rith World Center will be involved in the implementation of this project.
 
B’nai B’rith commends the government of Israel and the ZIV Medical Center, which have undertaken this initiative to help save the lives of wounded Syrians.
 
B’nai B’rith International has a tradition of helping communities in distress, which began in 1865 in pre-state Israel when we raised funds to aid victims of a cholera outbreak. Since then, B’nai B’rith has helped thousands of people across the globe who have faced adversity after natural and man-made disasters.  

B’nai B’rith International condemns the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Executive Board for its brazen vote to reject Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem, the historic and present capital of Israel.  
 
The vote is particularly odious, coming on Israel’s Independence Day.
 
B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin said: “This vote reflects the bias within the U.N. system itself. If there is to be any move toward resolving the conflict in the region, change needs to begin immediately in the international community, as reflected in these votes.”
 
In advance of the vote, B’nai B’rith sent letters to member states urging them to reject the measure.
 
The UNESCO Executive Board adopted the resolution with 22 countries voting in favor, 23 abstaining and 10 opposing the measure.
 
Saltzman and Mariaschin added: “The large number of abstentions and a steadily growing—though limited—number of nations willing to reject an absurd motion attempting to erase Israel’s millennia connection to Jerusalem demonstrates a moral line in the sand.”
 
B’nai B’rith commends the 10 nations that recognized the bias of this measure and voted to reject it: the United States, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Ukraine, Togo and the United Kingdom. The vote by Sweden in favor of the measure stands out among European nations for its disdain of the facts that link Israel and Jews to the city.
This cynical vote is indicative of the continuing politicization at UNESCO bodies, which threatens to doom the organization to irrelevance in matters relating to history and culture, the core of UNESCO’s mission.
 
B’nai B’rith, which has an office of U.N. Affairs at the world body’s global headquarters in New York, and representation at UNESCO in Paris and the Human Rights Council in Geneva, has long called-out anti-Israel bias.

​B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
 
B’nai B’rith International is deeply disappointed in Pope Francis’ comparison of European migrant camps to Nazi concentration camps. We ask the pontiff to refrain from drawing this analogy in the future.
 
The Holocaust—a campaign of genocide against the Jewish people—was unique in its scope and its depravity.  Any attempt to compare it to other tragedies ultimately trivializes the importance of the Holocaust and reduces its potency as a tool to educate current and future generations.
 
The pope first made this comparison on April 22, when he said during an event in Rome: “These refugee camps—so many are concentration camps, crowded with people.”
 
Then, on April 29, a German reporter asked the pope if he made a mistake in his original comparison.
 
Pope Francis defended his initial remarks over the weekend, “There was no linguistic lapse: There are concentration camps, sorry: refugee camps that are true camps of concentration.”
 
Nazis built concentration camps to murder millions of Jews. Migrant camps are meant to assist people fleeing brutal hardships at home.
 
We understand that people living in European migrant camps have endured arduous conditions. However, these migrant camps cannot be compared to Nazi concentration camps, which were built with the express purpose of corralling the Jews of Europe so they could be annihilated en masse.