Seniors
With over 80,000 seniors in New York’s 7th Congressional District, one of Joe’s top priorities is ensuring New York remains a great place for seniors to spend their golden years. In particular, after a lifetime of hard work seniors deserve to know that the promises of Social Security and Medicare will be upheld.
From his seat on the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees these critical programs, Joe is not only fighting to protect Social Security and preserve Medicare, but is working to strengthen these lifelines for seniors today and generations to come.
Joe is working on behalf of New York’s seniors by:
- Opposing Republican efforts to privatize Social Security and dismantle Medicare by replacing it with a voucher system, both of which would increase seniors’ day-to-day costs and reduce their health care benefits
- Enhancing and improving seniors’ benefits through the enactment of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-148) which:
- Provides free annual wellness visits;
- Expanded Medicare to ensure key preventive services like mammograms and cholesterol screenings are covered;
- Strengthens Medicare for the long-term by extending its solvency;
- Put health care decision making back in the hands of seniors and their doctors instead of insurance companies; and
- Reduced the cost of prescription drugs by:
- Closing the gap in Medicare Part D’s coverage (also known as the “donut hole”) so seniors pay less out-of-pocket for their medications; and
- Providing the nearly 4 million people on Medicare who confronted this gap in coverage in 2010 with a one-time, tax-free $250 rebate check.
- Spearheading a plan to give every senior on Social Security a one-time $250 payment in 2011 to make up for the lack of a cost of living adjustment (COLA) to their benefits
- Raising awareness in the community of scams targeting seniors