{"id":34,"date":"2015-07-20T15:49:30","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T15:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?page_id=34"},"modified":"2017-06-18T12:01:29","modified_gmt":"2017-06-18T16:01:29","slug":"amac-foundation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?page_id=34","title":{"rendered":"AMAC Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cropped-AMAC-foundation-logo-e1486078472610.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-5774\" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cropped-AMAC-foundation-logo-e1486078472610-300x104.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"52\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cropped-AMAC-foundation-logo-e1486078472610-300x104.png 300w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cropped-AMAC-foundation-logo-e1486078472610.png 425w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Americans on the threshold of retirement\u2014along with those beginning to look long-term at their retirement plans\u2014are faced with a bewildering array of options, policies, and decision criteria that must be evaluated to ensure that they make the right choices at the right time. Guidance to navigate these bureaucratic waters is scarce, often limited to simple assistance in completing the forms necessary to activate the decisions that must be made. Advice on what is right for the individual is difficult at best to come by.<\/p>\n<p>AMAC recognized this situation, and formed\u00a0the AMAC Foundation, a tax-exempt non-profit [501(c)(3)] organization designed to broaden older Americans\u2019 understanding of our country\u2019s Social Security and Medicare Systems. The Foundation is dedicated to assisting older Americans in understanding the options available to them as they make life decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Generally speaking, the Foundation is organized to help protect and ensure the financial security, health, and social lives of current and future mature Americans through information, education, and research on Social Security, Medicare, and related issues.\u00a0 The Foundation\u2019s vision is to serve as a source of guidance for an ever-growing segment of America\u2019s citizenry, especially those having questions, concerns, or information needs relative to the choices facing them. To accomplish this, the Foundation\u2019s projects and plans include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Providing factual information that improves understanding of the positive value of Social Security and Medicare and the current and long-term challenges these programs face;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Tracking current and proposed legislation and public pronouncements on Social Security and Medicare and assessing the impact of these developments on older Americans;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Providing interpretations by Certified Social Security Advisors through AMAC publications, workshops, webinars, podcasts, and telephone support;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Providing interpretations and guidance on the impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and other healthcare legislation affecting mature Americans, including ways to maximize benefits and minimize penalties; and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Serving all Americans in a variety of capacities, including provision of a source of education on the principles of American Free Enterprise, long-term retirement financial planning, and preparing for life\u2014and potential employment\u2014after retirement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Philosophically, the Foundation embraces the principles of the free enterprise system and recognizes the role that free enterprise has played historically in achieving prosperity for America. The Foundation also recognizes that many Americans share their wealth to help those who are less fortunate, who do not have the resources to obtain the help they need, or who may have reached an advanced age. Accordingly, the Foundation seeks to offer an outlet for this philanthropy by encouraging potential benefactors to play a part in achieving its vision of service to Americans.<\/p>\n<p>There are many for-profit enterprises across the country to provide service to wealthy Americans as they deal with their individual decision-making tasks; unfortunately, many older Americans cannot afford the fees associated with these private enterprises. Accordingly, the AMAC Foundation is designed to provide assistance to at-risk older Americans with low to moderate incomes at no charge.<\/p>\n<p>With AMAC Founder and President Dan Weber overseeing the Foundation&#8217;s launch, we\u00a0experienced a baptism of fire, so to speak, with the planning and execution of our\u00a0June, 2014 National Health Care Symposium in Washington, D.C.. The Symposium was a highly-acclaimed two-day conference that brought together some of the most highly-regarded voices in America\u2019s health care debate and focused attention on the problems facing health care in the years ahead. We&#8217;ve followed that major event up with a series of public seminars and activities designed to build our footprint as a senior support organization, and detailed our progress in the Annual Reports that can be accessed from\u00a0our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amacfoundation.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Foundation website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>The Foundation\u2019s Online Presence<\/h2>\n<p>Operation of the Foundation\u2019s two informational websites, the <strong>Medicare Report<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>MedicareReport.org<\/strong><\/a>) and the <strong>Social Security Report (<a href=\"http:\/\/socialsecurityreport.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SocialSecurityReport.org<\/a>)<\/strong>, continues on a daily schedule, collecting and posting news accounts of issues affecting these two areas \u00a0and providing a wealth of background information and guidance on these vital programs.<\/p>\n<p>Along with operation of these two sites, the Foundation\u2019s online presence are\u00a0strengthened a multi-faceted website (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amacfoundation.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AMACFoundation.org<\/a>) designed to serve as a conduit for a constituency seeking current information about activities, schedules, and accomplishments.<\/p>\n<h2>Dealing with Financing<\/h2>\n<p>The Foundation is registered as a 501(c)(3) public charity, having received its Internal Revenue System designation in mid-2013. As a charitable organization, one of its primary initiatives involves appealing to the public for funding to develop the capacity critical to its mission of building and delivering services that will enrich the lives of America&#8217;s seniors. This mission involves providing information and education designed to protect and ensure the financial security, health, and social lives of current and future mature Americans, and it\u2019s a mission that provides focus to everything we do.<\/p>\n<p>In order to fund the Foundation&#8217;s operations during its start-up years, AMAC\u2019s Member Services Representatives implemented an opportunity for new and renewing members to become aware of the Foundation and to encourage their contribution of financial support for its work. This latter step has proved enormously successfully, and has been instrumental in enabling us to deliver productive services during our brief time as an organization.<\/p>\n<p>Since that time, we\u2019ve embarked on a concentrated effort to encourage additional financial support from major funding sources\u2014other Foundations, Corporate contributors, etc.\u2014with a pledge to build on our early-year successes and to make the Foundation a source of critical assistance to America\u2019s seniors. As part of this approach, we\u2019ve registered the Foundation on Guidestar, the non-profit world\u2019s premier information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit\u00a0companies. We were able to attain \u201cGold Level Participation\u201d\u2026the highest level of participation available under the program.<\/p>\n<h2>Other Projects the Foundation is Taking On<\/h2>\n<p>Beyond the larger steps we\u2019ve taken, the Foundation is also focusing attention on the delivery\u00a0of a seminar series designed to cover specific topics of importance to America\u2019s seniors. For example, to-date\u00a0we conducted seminars on\u00a0\u201cProtecting Yourself from Investor Fraud\u201d seminar, &#8220;Detecting, Preventing, and Reporting Medicare Fraud,&#8221; and &#8220;Sudden Death: Are You Prepared?&#8221; designed to assist constituents in preparing details for loved ones to carry on in their absence.<\/p>\n<p>Planning for additional seminars on critical and informational topics is a continual process, resulting in the delivery in 2015 of the first in a series of\u00a0\u201cAMAC Connects Technology for Seniors\u201d programs. The first edition of covered\u00a0Windows 8 and the difficulties most people face when experiencing this operating system for the first time. Additional sessions are on the drawing board for the next few years.<\/p>\n<p>Our objective with this seminar approach is to progressively build our brand\u2014the AMAC Foundation brand\u2014in small increments, while building resources in the background for the major initiatives of the future.\u00a0 While our initial intent is to offer these projects locally in our Central Florida operating area, we have a long range objective of using live streaming technology via the AMAC network and the Foundation website to propagate the information across the country. Likewise, we plan to record and archive portions of the material for on-demand access through the Foundation\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p>Distribution of the Foundation\u2019s 2015 flagship project, the \u201cWho\u2019s Who in Social Security\u201d book published during the latter part of the third quarter of 2015 continued throughout the fourth quarter of that year. Working through contacts in Washington, the book is being distributed to all Congressmen and Senators, as well as to a wide range of media outlets regularly reporting on Social Security-related issues. In order to make the book\u2019s content available to a wider audience, a PDF version was installed on the Foundation\u2019s website for downloading, and the content was digitized for access via the Social Security Report website.. Initial feedback on the publication was extremely positive, and has enabled the Foundation to further expand its footing in a variety of areas.<\/p>\n<p>For a complete look at what the AMAC Foundation has accomplished in its\u00a0first two years, take a look at our Annual Reports, available for viewing or downloading <a href=\"http:\/\/amacfoundation.org\/resources\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Looking Ahead<\/h2>\n<p>While we\u2019ve been able to produce effective deliverables to-date, all of us on the Foundation staff are optimistic about what lies ahead and about what we firmly believe we\u2019ll be able to offer in the way of services to our constituency\u2026America\u2019s seniors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Americans on the threshold of retirement\u2014along with those beginning to look long-term at their retirement plans\u2014are faced with a bewildering<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-34","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7144,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34\/revisions\/7144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}