SACO — Advocates for a senior fitness program say that exercise is preventative medicine and they’re concerned that current health care proposals would make it less accessible ”“ thereby driving up healthcare costs.

In January of 2008, Priscilla Farrell started participating in SilverSneakers, a national program that promotes fitness and active lifestyles for seniors. Through the program, Farrell goes to the Saco Fitness Center four days a week for personal training and fitness classes.

“It’s been a life changing experience,” said Farrell.

Prior to joining SilverSneakers, Farrell said she was “on oxygen 24/7” and had to use a chair lift to get up stairs.

“If I did anything, I was out of breath,” she said.

She decided to start the exercise program after her then 6-year-old granddaughter said she had a dream that they were walking on the beach together.

Since starting the program, Farrell said she has lost 70 pounds and has cut her medications in half. She now only needs to use oxygen at night.

“My life is so much better,” she said.

Farrell is 69, but said she feels younger now then when she was 60.

“Exercise is medicine,” she said.

Classes and sessions with personal trainers focus on muscle strength, endurance, balance and coordination, all areas that can deteriorate over time, said Doug McFarland, account manager for the SilverSneakers Fitness Program.

“It’s prevention,” said McFarland, and Farrell’s success story is one of many nationwide. “If they can go to the doctor’s less and take less medications, it’s to everyone’s advantage.”

Farrell said that because she has reduced her medications and oxygen, the program has saved her insurance company thousands of dollars.

Farrell, and others, are able to attend SilverSneakers free through Medicare Advantage, a supplemental health insurance plan for private insurance companies that provides reimbursements for fitness programs, among other benefits.

Farrell is worried that a national health care reform proposal currently on the table would cut Medicare Advantage and coverage for programs like SilverSneakers.

According to a statement from the White House, the proposed health care reform would eliminate “excessive government subsidies to Medicare Advantage Plans” and save Medicare beneficiaries, taxpayers and the federal government more than $100 billion over 10 years.

“There is no evidence that this extra payment leads to better quality of life for Medicare beneficiaries, and all Medicare beneficiaries pay the price of these excessive overpayments through higher premiums ”“ even the 78 percent of seniors who are not enrolled in a Medicare Advantage program,” according to the statement.

The United States government pays private insurance companies an average of 14 percent more to provide Medicare Advantage beneficiaries than it does for a similar beneficiary in a traditional Medicare program, according to the statement.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.