Seniors

During my time in Congress, I will continue working on behalf of seniors and advocating legislation that works on their behalf.  As your Representative in the U.S. Congress, please know that I am firmly committed to protecting Social Security, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, making Medicare work better for more seniors and increasing the quality health care coverage for more seniors.

If you should ever have a problem with Social Security, Medicare or any other federal agency, please do not hesitate to contact my office and see if we can help.  You can call 1-800-223-2220 or visit the “How Can I Help You?” section of my website by clicking here.

In This Section:

• Social Security
• Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)
• Medicare
• Prescription Drugs & Medicare Part-D
• Related Legislation (Sponsored or Cosponsored by Congressman Ross this session of Congress) 
• Additional Resources
• Related Documents & News Releases

Social Security

Almost 75 years ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law our nation’s Social Security system to provide retirement protection for all Americans.  To date, this essential safety net program has helped keep millions of seniors out of poverty and has ensured those who have worked their entire lives have something to count on when they retire.  During some of the toughest economic times since World War II, seniors are depending more and more on their Social Security income.  Rest assured that I will do all I can as your Representative in Congress to honor our promises to our seniors and to protect this program for future generations.

The Social Security system provides three distinct types of benefits for workers and their families:  retirement, disability, and survivors.  Social Security guarantees working and retired Americans and their families the economic stability that keeps them out of poverty.

The Social Security Administration projects that the Trust Fund will be able to meet its full obligations until at least 2041, at which point it will still be able to pay out an estimated 73 percent of benefits.  While I believe that it is important to find ways to strengthen the Social Security system, I have many concerns regarding proposals to privatize it.  I refuse to support any plan that will take such a chance on a person’s benefit security.

Unlike Social Security, Medicare faces the immediate challenge of going broke as early as 2019. Our elderly population is continuing to grow with the number of persons over the age 65 projected to be 17.4 percent of Arkansas's population by the year 2020. This is estimated to be almost a 4 percent increase from 2005. If we do nothing to address this issue, it will require 100% of federal revenue to simply fund Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid by 2040.  

These statistics indicate we need to focus our efforts on protecting the financial stability of the Medicare system, and I remain committed to working with my colleagues in securing this valuable healthcare program.

I understand your frustration with the potential threats to the stability of Social Security.  With retirees paying high prescription drug and health care costs their Social Security checks do not go as far as they should.  You can be assured I will work diligently to support Social Security, Medicare, pension reform, and our country's retirees.

Additionally, I am pleased to inform you that I am a cosponsor of H.R. 1067, the Notch Fairness Act of 2009, which was introduced on February 13, 2009.  Millions of Americans paid into the Social Security system over a lifetime of work. I believe that we have a duty to make sure that the benefits which were paid for and earned are protected.  I also agree that we have an obligation to ensure that the Social Security system is fair, particularly for those born in the notch years.

As you may know, H.R. 1067 was introduced as legislation that would amend title II of the Social Security Act to allow workers who attain age 65 after 1981 and before 1992 to choose either lump sum payments over four years for a total of $5,000 or an improved benefit computation formula under a new 10-year rule governing the transition to the changes in benefit computation rules enacted in the Social Security Amendments of 1977.  This legislation was most recently referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.

I assure you that I am adamantly opposed to any plan that will gamble with the benefits of our retired seniors, widows, children, and disabled, as well as any initiative that will cut existing benefits.  As your U.S. Congressman, you have my continued support on this legislation.  Please know that I will continue voting to protect social security benefits for today's seniors and for future generations.

<Back to Top>

Social Security COLA

On October 15, 2010, the Social Security Administration announced that there will be no COLA increase for 2011.  However, you will be pleased to know that I was a cosponsor of the Seniors Protection Act (H.R. 5987) in the 111th Congress.  This legislation would have provided a $250 payment to beneficiaries in place of a zero COLA.  Unfortunately, this legislation failed to pass the U.S. House of Representatives on December 8, 2010.  Rest assured that I will continue to support and cosponsor this legislation should it be reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 112th Congress.

Please know that I am committed to providing our seniors with adequate compensation for a zero COLA.  Our senior citizens should not have to suffer because of an economic recession, skyrocketing health care and prescription drug costs and increased energy bills.

The COLA is not determined by Congress; rather it is adjusted annually based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, the “CPI-W.”  By law, it is automatically calculated by comparing the increase or decrease in prices from one year to the next.  In 2008, the level of the CPI-W was affected by an unusually high spike in energy costs.  This resulted in a COLA of 5.8 percent which was applied to benefits beginning in January 2009, representing the largest increase in benefits since 1982.

However, immediately after this historic increase, the CPI-W index dropped 5 percentage points.  Since that time, there has been very modest growth, but not enough to catch up to the level of the CPI-W in 2008.  The same formula that provided seniors with a significant COLA increase in 2009 is the same formula that will not provide for a COLA increase for 2011.

Additionally, there are rumors that while seniors did not receive a COLA increase for 2010 and 2011, members of Congress did.  This is not true.  In fact in 2009, we voted on a provision in the FY2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act to ensure that we did not receive any form of pay adjustment or increase for 2010.  If seniors do not qualify for a COLA increase, neither should Congress.  That is why I voted in support of this provision, which successfully blocked a pay raise for Members in the 111th Congress.

Furthermore, you will be pleased to know that I also helped pass H.R. 5146 in the 111th Congress, which was legislation that halted the automatic cost-of-living adjustment for members of Congress in 2011.  H.R. 5146 extended the current pay freeze already in place from 2009 and denies the automatic cost-of-living adjustment that was scheduled for Congress.  I believe it would be wrong for Congress to raise their own salaries when seniors are not getting a cost of living raise on their Social Security check and when so many people are out of work through no fault of their own. That is why I successfully led the fight to stop congressional pay raises for 2010 and 2011.

Finally, please know that I fully supported H.R. 3082, the Continuing Appropriations and Surface Transportation Extensions Act, which included a two-year freeze of the salaries of approximately 2 million federal employees in an attempt to reduce the annual budget deficit.  Specifically, the employees included in the freeze are those under the General Schedule, Executive Schedule, Senior Executive Service, Senior Foreign Service, senior-level and scientific and professional, prevailing rate, and other executive branch pay systems and schedules.  American seniors and families have tightened their belts in these tough times and it is time that the federal government takes the same responsible approach.  

Social Security is one of our nation’s most important programs.  We must protect the future of Social Security for today’s seniors and our future generations. That's why I'm opposed to privatizing Social Security and will never vote to cut seniors’ benefits.

<Back to Top>

Medicare

In April 2011, the House passed a budget for the 2012 fiscal year authored by the Republican Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, H. Con. Res. 34.  Ryan’s plan privatizes Medicare by dismantling the program for future beneficiaries and then using the funds for vouchers to purchase private health insurance.  I am adamantly opposed to any attempt to privatize Medicare and so I voted against this legislation.

There are two major flaws in Ryan’s plan to privatize Medicare.  The first is that beneficiaries’ vouchers would be tied to inflation while health care costs continue to skyrocket at twice the rate of inflation.  So, as health care costs rise, seniors would be forced to pay more and more for their own health care.  In fact, the CBO predicts that under the current Medicare system, a typical 65-year-old Medicare beneficiary in 2022 would only pay $6,150 a year in out-of-pocket health care spending.  Under the Ryan Plan, a beneficiary’s share in 2022 would more than double to $12,510 per year.  Privatizing Medicare is dangerous and it does nothing to reduce costs – it simply shifts the cost from the federal government onto the backs of our seniors.  

Secondly, the Ryan plan assumes seniors would be able to get private health insurance with their vouchers.  As any senior knows, the older you get, the more difficult it is to find affordable and adequate private health insurance.  That’s exactly why Medicare was created – to ensure America’s seniors got the health care they needed to live long, healthy lives.

The American Associated of Retired Persons (AARP) said the Ryan Plan’s changes to Medicare “would simply shift these costs onto the backs of people in Medicare.  It would undermine Medicare’s promise of secure health coverage—a guarantee that future seniors have contributed to through a lifetime of hard work.”

When the Republicans tried to partially privatize Social Security under President Bush, I fought them every step of the way because Social Security is a valuable program that keeps half of all seniors out of poverty.  Now that the Republicans are coming after Medicare, I will fight their efforts once again.  I want to trim our deficits and return to the days of balanced budgets more than anyone else, but not on the backs of our seniors who did nothing to get us into this mess in the first place.  

The federal budget is about more than just dollars and cents.  It is a statement of our values and priorities.  My priority is and has always been protecting Arkansas’s seniors and that’s what I’ll continue to do as Congressman for Arkansas’s Fourth Congressional District.

<Back to Top>

Prescription Drugs

I believe the federal government should be authorized to use every opportunity to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Americans.  Too many seniors and working families are often faced with unthinkable decisions such as to choose between food or their prescription drugs.  I have long advocated common sense reforms to the health care and Medicare system that help our seniors afford the medication that is important to their livelihood and well-being.
 
First and foremost, we must reform the Medicare Part D program by closing the so-called “doughnut hole” gap and by allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate with drug manufacturers for lower drug prices.

The Medicare Part D “doughnut hole” gap, or the point when a beneficiary will experience a gap in coverage, occurs when a senior surpasses $2,250 of received coverage on approved prescription drugs. At that point, the senior is required to pay 100 percent of the drug charges while continuing to pay monthly premiums.  Once $5,100 is reached the “doughnut hole” closes and seniors return to paying just the co-pay.

Fixing the “doughnut hole” is critical for Arkansas seniors because of the 40 Medicare plans available, all but one of them included a “doughnut hole.” This means that 92 percent of Arkansas seniors could be affected by the doughnut hole and be forced to pay 100 percent of the prescription drug fees out of their own pockets once they hit this gap in coverage. 

I also believe the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) should have the authority to negotiate with drug manufacturers for lower drug prices.  Unfortunately, this was not included in the Medicare drug bill that was signed into law in 2003.  In fact, this law actually contains language that states the Federal Government shall be prohibited from negotiating with the big drug manufacturers to bring down the high cost of medicine.

That is why in the last Congress, I cosponsored and helped pass in the House the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007, which will require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers the prices that may be charged to prescription drug plan sponsors and Medicare Advantage organizations for covered part D drugs and individuals enrolled under a prescription drug plan or under a Medicare Advantage prescription drug (MA-PD) plan. 

Please know that I will continue working to lowering the cost of prescription drugs for our seniors and Arkansas’s many working families.

<Back to Top>

Related Legislation (Sponsored or Cosponsored by Congressman Ross this session of Congress)

• H.R.303 : Retired Pay Restoration Act
• H.R.891 : Medication Therapy Management Benefits Act of 2011
• H.R.1092 : Military Retirees Health Care Protection Act
• H.R.1206 : Access to Professional Health Insurance Advisors Act of 2011
• H.R.1332 : Social Security Fairness Act of 2011
• H.R.1897 : Alzheimer's Breakthrough Act of 2011
• H.R.1936 : Medicare Access to Diabetes Supplies Act of 2011

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Social Security & Medicare benefits
• Problem with Social Security or Medicare?

 <Back to Top>