Bob's Journey: From Retired Physician to AARP Advocate
When I was a family practitioner for 36 years in a small town in Central Illinois, I never worried about being bored in retirement. I knew nearly everyone in town and had connections through out the area. I had helped create and served on the boards of nonprofit community organizations and my church. Then in order to be close to our family, my wife and I moved to Colorado, and I had lots of time on my hands.
Fortunately, I joined AARP and through the organization found an opportunity to volunteer as an advocate for AARP Colorado. The Advocacy Group focuses on bills presented in the Colorado Legislature that impact the membership of AARP, as well as all older Coloradans.
We focus on housing, taxes, retirement income, health care, transportation, food stability, elections, and utilities. Currently we are following 67 bills. We all register with the state as volunteer lobbyists so if the group feels that we should strongly support or strongly oppose a bill, at least one of us will enter testimony in person, remotely, or written. We also contact individual legislators to express our group opinion and offer changes to the proposed bills if necessary. We may also be asked to be involved with the media to support our positions.
As a retired physician, I’m very interested in the healthcare arena where we are following more than 20 bills.
For example, in the current session we support legislation that economically assists patients when a health insurer goes out of business (House Bill 1258), improves drug label accessibility for the visually disabled (House Bill 1115), streamlines or eliminates prior authorizations for many medications and procedures (House Bill 1149), and develops a drug donation program (Senate Bill 061).
We are encouraged by the concern of our legislators for the wellbeing of their constituents. In contrast, we are strongly opposed to a bill which would increase pharmaceutical costs for all Coloradans (Senate Bill 060).
Needless to say, the Advocacy Group is assisted by a great group of full time AARP employees but there is a significant time commitment for the volunteers. Most of the work is done in the legislative session which by law lasts for 120 days and started on January 10 this year.
The bottom line is I’m not bored. I’m mentally challenged by the work. The other advocates are committed, intelligent, and wonderful people from a wide range of occupations. I’m thankful for the opportunity to have a positive influence on the legislation being proposed for Colorado and represent the membership of AARP.
To receive action alerts about state and federal advocacy issues, please visit https://action.aarp.org/sign.
