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Seniors/Social Security

I am working to ensure that we have adequate healthcare and retirement security for our growing senior population. By 2030, nearly one in five Americans will be 65 or older.

For over seven decades, Social Security has provided a safety net to millions of older Americans. I am absolutely committed to preventing Republicans from privatizing this critical program.
Despite statements to the contrary, Social Security does not face an immediate crisis.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Social Security can pay full benefits until 2052, and about 80 percent of benefits thereafter. I believe we need to explore ways to strengthen and modernize Social Security so it remains solvent for generations to come. Privatization does exactly the opposite—risking the safety net of our seniors in the often volatile stock market.

We must also take steps to strengthen Medicare. I voted for a bill to make health care more affordable for seniors by requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices (H.R. 4). I also voted for the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act, a bill to prohibit the reduction of payments to physicians and add tens of billions of dollars to the Medicare trust fund by reducing overpayments to profit rich HMO’s. Congress has a moral responsibility to pass laws that help our seniors, not the big pharmaceutical and insurance companies.

Physician Payment Cuts:
A 10.1 percent cut in physician payments under Medicare were scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2008. This cut would have been devastating not only for Medicare physicians, but also for beneficiaries. It would have jeopardized seniors’ access to the physicians that they know and trust and, especially in rural areas, endangered access to physicians altogether.

On July 15, 2008, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 became law. This bill stopped the 10.1% cut in Medicare payments to physicians for the remainder of 2008 and provided a 1.1 percent increase in reimbursements for 2009, preserving care for over 1.75 million beneficiaries in Illinois. While this bill did not permanently solve the problem, it did prevent the debilitating cuts from happening in the short-term.

I remain concerned about the inequity that the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) - the formula that determines physician reimbursement - creates in the system. While I am wholeheartedly in support of a short-term fix, it is critical that Congress also find a permanent solution to this problem. We must ensure that physicians are receiving fair compensation for the services they are providing, or they will stop seeing any Medicare patients at all.