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Mary Scott
President, Texas AARP
Hometown: Bedford
Age: 78
Background: Scott was honored by the Texas AARP with the 2009 Texas Andrus Award for Community Service. She was a national AARP board member from 2004 to 2008 and led the AARP’s National Legislative Council. She was also active with the AARP/VOTE program to help educate Texans on issues such as Social Security and is a member of the Texas AARP "Capitol Gang," which helps AARP promote its priorities at the state Capitol.
AARP’s endorsement
AARP cited several key provisions in its endorsement of the House healthcare reform bill, saying it would:
Protect and strengthen Medicare.
Improve Medicare payments to doctors to make it easier for seniors to find a doctor of their choice.
Lower drug costs for seniors by closing the Medicare Part D "doughnut hole," which hits seniors with out-of-pocket expenses in a gap in coverage.
Require Medicare and insurance companies to pay in full for preventive screenings for diabetes, cancer and osteoporosis.
Prevent insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions or because a person gets sick.
Limit out-of-pocket expenses.
Provide affordable insurance options for those who don’t have insurance.
Provide benefits to seniors to help them live in their own homes under a so-called CLASS program.
Source: AARP Texas
House narrowly passes healthcare overhaul
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They were angry. They were worried. They were up in arms.
Senior citizens took to the streets, town halls and other public forums in the months leading up to Saturday’s House vote on a healthcare overhaul bill to voice their opinions, playing a big role in shaping the debate throughout North Texas and the nation.Mary Scott was front and center in many of those discussions. As president of the Texas AARP, Scott, who lives in Bedford, was among a cadre of volunteers who fanned out across the community to speak on issues of concern to seniors and to debunk misperceptions."Seniors have been some of the biggest critics," Scott said recently. "They were afraid of losing what they have. They were not getting the facts, and they were scared."Saturday’s vote and the decision last week by the national AARP to endorse the bill drafted by the House could renew those concerns, bringing to the surface once again the tensions that have marked healthcare reform. The Senate debate could reach into next year, and then differences in the House and Senate versions would have to be resolved for a bill to reach President Barack Obama’s desk."It doesn’t matter which way we go — somebody is going to be mad at us," Scott said. "People will be finding things they don’t like. Maybe we don’t go far enough in some cases and too far in others."Years of debateScott is an experienced hand at healthcare reform.She participated in high school and college debates in the 1940s and 1950s on "socialized medicine." She watched Congress approve the Medicare program in the 1960s and worked on reform efforts again in the 1990s with AARP.And she recently attended a debate in which the Wiley College team in Marshall — the East Texas college featured in the movie The Great Debaters with Denzel Washington — took on the latest healthcare issues.In many ways, little has changed since she started examining the issue in high school, she said."It was practically the same data and issues involved," Scott said. "I think it will keep coming at us as long as we don’t get some of the basic questions settled."She has been traveling to community groups and meetings to answer questions about healthcare reform and to provide a nonpartisan update on where the debate stands. At a recent meeting of the Senior Alliance of Tarrant County, before the AARP’s endorsement, she was questioned about the bills.And she has taken abuse from some members of the public who oppose healthcare reform. "One said I should just quit and go to the home," she said.Scott recently received the state AARP’s 2009 Texas Andrus Award for Community Service, named for AARP founder Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, and has been active with AARP at the state and national level.Texas AARP Director Bob Jackson said Scott is a skilled, knowledgeable volunteer for the organization, having also served on its national policy council. "She is one of the best-versed people on fundamental policy of any volunteer leader there is," Jackson said.
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