Seniors
Rep. Chu speaks with senior citizens at the AltaMed Health Services in El Monte.
Seniors are the bedrock of our communities. They have worked hard all their lives and built our communities. Now, like so many Americans, they are struggling and face particular challenges including high health care costs and income insecurity. America pioneered a social safety net to provide for people as they enter retirement – and they have earned it! We must never neglect that responsibility to our seniors.
Seniors are the bedrock of our communities. They have worked hard all their lives and built our nation. Now, like so many Americans, they are struggling and face particular challenges including high health care costs and income insecurity. America pioneered a social safety net to provide for people as they enter retirement – and they have earned it! We must never neglect that responsibility to our seniors.
I share seniors strong concerns about protecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. That’s why I have continually fought to protect these programs that provide vital resources for retirees who have worked hard and rely on them in their golden years.
My priorities for our seniors include:
Protecting Social Security
Protecting Medicare
Health Care Reform for Seniors
Protecting Social Security
Seventy-five years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Social Security into law, creating an enduring promise to America’s seniors that the retirement program they paid into their entire working lives would provide them a stable source of income.
One of my top priorities is to preserve — not privatize — Social Security.
In an effort to protect Social Security from cuts and to strengthen it for years to come, I support:
• The Preserving Our Promise to Seniors Act (H.R. 539) to strengthenSocial Security for the next 75 years. This bill would improve benefits by fixing the outdated Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) formula and phase out the payroll tax exemption on incomes over $106,800. It would also extend the COLA formula to seniors’ health care and other costs through a Consumer Price Index for the Elderly.
• The Social Security Fairness Act of 2011 (H.R. 1332) to eliminate unfair penalties on spouses with government pensions. This can significantly reduce the retirement pay for millions of hard-working public servants, even though they have worked for relatively lower wages than most private sector workers.
• Opposing Raising the Retirement Age (H.RES. 1670). I oppose raising the retirement age to receive Social Security benefits. Many who have worked blue-collar and physically demanding jobs may not be able to work in their mid-60s. It is crucial we preserve Social Security benefits to seniors when they need it the most.
Protecting Medicare
Medicare is a bedrock promise to American seniors. After a lifetime of work, Americans can count on the stability and security of reliable, dependable, high-quality health insurance.
• I Oppose the Ryan Budget Plan to End Medicare. The Republican Congress pushed through the Ryan budget plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system. Under this system, seniors would be at the mercy of insurance companies as they look for private insurance. I voted against this destructive plan for our seniors.
A voucher system would mean less benefits and higher out of pocket health care costs. In fact, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reports seniors would see their health expenses double by 2022 under the Ryan plan. It would also cut benefits for current Medicare beneficiaries by re-opening the prescription drug coverage gap known as the “donut hole” – costing an estimated 4 million seniors up to $44 billion by 2020 – and increasing the costs of annual wellness visits and other preventive services for millions of seniors.
• We Need to Strengthen Medicare – Not End It. That’s why I support the Restore the American Dream for the 99% Act. This is comprehensive legislation includes sensible revenue to pay for protecting Medicare into the future. It would also allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies to lower prices and save billions of dollars.
I also proudly voted for health care reform, which increases prescription drug coverage for seniors, expands preventive services, and extends Medicare’s solvency for a eight more years.
Health Care Reform for Seniors
Seniors and older Americans age 55 to 64 face unique and often daunting challenges in finding affordable, high-quality health care. Their costs tend to be higher than the rest of the country, they are more likely to have chronic conditions, and they are more likely to be denied care when they get sick. They also have to deal with insurance companies that charge older Americans substantially more for the same coverage as younger Americans — sometimes as much as 11 times more.
That’s why I voted in favor of the historic Affordable Care Act, which:
• Closes the Donut Hole: Health care reform gives seniors in the Medicare Part D prescription drug "donut hole" coverage gap a $250 rebate. And it later completely closes the dreaded donut hole, a coverage gap that is life-threatening for many.
• Provides Free Preventive and Wellness Care: Health care reform addresses many of the vulnerabilities seniors face in obtaining and paying for quality health care. One of the biggest reforms in the bill is free preventive and wellness care for all Medicare beneficiaries.
• Makes Seniors Healthcare More Affordable: Health care reform ends the insurance company practice of pricing people out of coverage because they have an existing health problem or arbitrarily limiting the amount of care someone can receive. It also makes insurance more affordable for seniors by limiting an insurance companies’ ability to charge higher premiums based solely on age.
• Extends Medicare’s Solvency: By reducing waste, fraud and abuse, and slowing the cost growth in health care, Medicare will be solvent for another eight years.
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