Name in the News: Gary Simon, AARP Hawaii’s volunteer state president

Shortly before retiring from St. Francis Healthcare System last month — closing out three decades of employment, mostly with St. Francis Hospice — Gary Simon signed up for a new gig that also focuses, in large part, on aging and family caregiving issues.

As AARP Hawaii’s new volunteer state president, Simon said: “I am first in a long line of mentally and physically active, passionate and skilled volunteers. I endeavor to see that their needs are met and their events and projects are successful.” Altogether there are nearly 150,000 AARP members in the islands, and 400 volunteers “from all walks of life.”

On the local level, success hinges on sound planning developed in partnership with AARP Hawaii staff, its state director and a volunteer executive council, which Simon chairs. “Although we are focused on making life better for those who are age 50-plus, we also endeavor to improve the quality of life for the generations following us,” he said.

Along those lines, as the nonprofit pulls together priorities for the next legislative session, establishing a Hawaii retirement savings program for private-sector employees is, again, a top priority. This year, a bill initiating steps toward a public-private partnership dubbed “Hawaii Saves” won early backing among state lawmakers, but later stalled.

AARP Hawaii estimates that statewide 216,000 private-sector workers are not able to save for retirement through payroll deduction, regarded as the easiest and most effective vehicle.

“Workers are 15 times more likely to save if it comes out of their paychecks before they get a chance to spend it,” Simon said. “People can set up a payroll savings plan on their own, but the fact is only 1 in 20 people do it.”

Hawaii Saves proposes establishing an automatic individual retirement account (auto-IRA) tailored for employees at small businesses that do not offer a 401(k) or other retirement plan. While the program requires some state funding, AARP maintains that it will help avoid reliance on taxpayer-funded public assistance programs.

“Working until you die is not a retirement plan,” Simon said. In the absence of a sizable savings nest egg, he said, an older worker who falls ill or loses employment “will not be able to survive on Social Security alone and will likely need government housing, medical and food assistance.”

Question: What’s the range of various volunteer work underway at AARP Hawaii?

Answer: Volunteers are the essential core of AARP Hawaii. Because of their time and effort we are able to offer free community programs, like AARP Foundation Tax Aide, caregiver conferences, financial workshops, Movies for Grownups, and shredding (obsolete financial documents) events.

Many volunteers participate in community service projects — making our communities more livable and age friendly; creating safer streets; speaking to groups about disaster preparation, financial security and preventing scams; as well as holding safe driver education classes. We also have volunteers who connect people with one another for local tours and excursions to places like ‘Iolani Palace and Coconut Island.

Our advocacy volunteers fight for important issues such as Hawaii Saves, passing common-sense legislation to lower prescription drug prices, and supporting family caregivers. These issues affect all of us.

We each need to help secure our financial futures and the future of the next generation; we need to ensure that the cost of prescription drugs does not force consumers to untenable choices, such as food versus medicine or rationing drugs; and we need to safeguard the financial and social stability of our family caregivers, the backbone of our care system of our kupuna and our disabled.

Q: Is there a particular AARP service in need of helping hands?

A: We welcome new volunteers, and especially advocacy and communication volunteers to help us pull Hawaii Saves over the finish line in the 2020 legislative session. Our advocacy volunteers show up at hearings and rallies at the Capitol and generate calls and emails to legislators. Our communications volunteers help with social media and other efforts to publicize what we do in the community.

Q: This year, AARP pushed for growing the state’s Kupuna Caregivers program. How is that effort going?

A: We applaud our state lawmakers for increasing funding for the program to $1.5 million. The increase shows that the Legislature and governor are serious about supporting our strained, working caregivers by providing home- and community-based services for their loved ones so caregivers can stay on the job. Also, we look forward to the preliminary report from the state Executive Office on Aging on how to improve the program.

Q: Other state-centered priorities for 2020?

A: AARP Hawaii will continue to advocate for funding for long-standing aging support programs — Kupuna Care, the Aging & Disability Resource Center, Health Aging Partnership, the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Coordinator in the Executive Office on Aging. We also are looking forward to reviewing the Legislative Reference Bureau report on paid family leave that should come out later this year.

Q: Nationwide, AARP is pushing for reduction in prices for prescription drugs. How high are prices in Hawaii?

A: Americans pay the highest drug prices in the world. In Hawaii, the average annual cost of prescription drugs increased by almost 60% from 2012 to 2017. About 28,150 Hawaii residents have heart disease. But the annual cost of the heart-disease medication Aggrenox increased from $3,030 to $5,930 over five years.

Drug companies are putting profits over people. … A recent study found 28% of Americans stopped taking their medication in 2016 because of cost. Medication doesn’t help you, if you can’t afford to take it.

AARP is optimistic about efforts to make prescription drugs more affordable. We collected thousands of Hawaii signatures on a petition urging Congress to reduce prescription drug prices; and there is rare, bipartisan support in Washington, D.C., to reduce drug prices. But Big Pharma is powerful. They spend a lot of money on lobbying, so it will not be an easy fight.

Some common-sense solutions we support include: importing safe, lower-priced medicines from Canada and other countries; letting Medicare negotiate drug prices, like the Veterans Administration does; capping out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses; transparency about the reasons for price increases; and increasing access to generic drugs.

We briefed Hawaii members of Congress on the issue and possible solutions. They all support our efforts.

Q: We routinely hear about scams targeting kupuna bank accounts. Which ones concern you most?

A: Identity theft is my worst nightmare. We all receive calls from scammers seeking personal information. Some con artists claim to be from the IRS and ask to confirm our Social Security number with the malicious intent to drain our bank accounts. Others seek credit or debit card donations for fake charities.

I personally know an older woman in Hawaii who has been defrauded twice into providing her Social Security number to a scammer over the phone. Her Social Security payments were redirected to the con artist. Once your personal information is on the dark web, the FBI says that it can take two years or more to recover your identity. You might never recover any monies lost to these con artists.

Q: Which Honolulu Hale-related issues rank as top AARP Hawaii concerns?

A: Hawaii is the third most dangerous state for pedestrians 50 and older and the most deadly state per-capita in pedestrian deaths of those 65 and older. AARP partners with the city and state to strengthen pedestrian safety via the Complete Streets approach — safe access for all ages to community destinations via all modes of transportation, including walking and biking.

We also applaud the Legislature for passing Vision Zero legislation requiring the state and counties to come up with plans to eventually reduce the number of traffic fatalities to zero.

And we are closely following the development that will occur around Honolulu’s rail transit stations. We want to ensure that transit-oriented development includes amenities like child and adult day care, pharmacies and grocery stores — rather than only high-end retail and housing — within walking distance of stations.