Seniors

Healthcare and Nutrition:

Healthcare Reform: Co-sponsored and voted for greater access to healthcare for seniors (H.R.3962):

Lower Drug Costs - Ending the ‘doughnut hole’ for prescription drug coverage. The reform bill will result in lower overall prescription drug costs for seniors, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Right now, evidence suggests the “donut hole” coverage gap reduces seniors’ use of drugs prescribed by their doctor by an average of 14%, posing a real health threat to seniors who simply cannot afford the drugs.

Free Preventive Care – The House health bill contains provisions to end co-pays for recommended preventive services that will keep people healthier longer. Right now, one in five women age 50 or over did not have a mammogram in the last two years, and 38% of adults age 50 or over have never had a colonoscopy – with costs often a factor.

Better Primary Care - Ensuring access for all to their primary care doctor, and making sure the care is better coordinated to ensure seniors and others get recommended treatments, particularly for chronic diseases. Right now, about 12 million seniors lack access to a primary care doctor in their community.

Protecting Access to Doctors for Medicare Beneficiaries – The House bill eliminates the 21% pay cut doctors were facing for Medicare reimbursements, ensuring that these doctors will still be able to care for seniors—especially in rural areas. Right now, without reform, 40% of doctors say they will reduce the number of Medicare patients they treat.

Improved Safety - Developing national standards on quality measurement and reporting, investing in patient safety and rewarding doctors and nurses for high quality care. Right now, nearly one in five Medicare patients who are discharged from the hospital are readmitted within 30 days—many for preventable reasons.

Protection of Medicare - Extending the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund by five years, to help ensure Medicare can cover every American as they get older. Right now, the Medicare Trust Fund is projected to be exhausted in just eight years, in 2017, which could cause cuts to services and care.

Stronger Oversight - Focusing health care dollars on better care and benefits and cracking down on waste, fraud, abuse, and overpayments to enrich private companies. In the last year alone, improper Medicare payments that were discovered and stopped totaled more than $450 million.

Nutrition and Other Health Services for Seniors

Increasing Nutrition Benefits for Seniors - Supported funding to provide nearly 239 million meals to 2.5 million seniors by voting to direct $1.5 billion, to boost nutrition, transportation, and other supportive services for elderly Americans. (HR 3293, passed in House)

Preserving Missing Alzheimer Disease Patient Alert Program - Extended the Missing Alzheimer Disease Patient Alert Program through 2015, and included grants for non-profits to assist in locating missing patients. (H.R.908)

Protecting Nursing Home Funding - Cosigned Congressional letters with other Representatives to preserve high-quality skilled nursing care by joining 122 Members of Congress in calling for a halt to a $1.05 billion cut Medicare funding for skilled nursing facility care.

Ensuring Medicare Patients Received Durable Medical Equipment - Cosigned Congressional letters with other Representatives to strongly advocated that any Medicare competitive bidding process must ensure a high quality of service for the durable medical equipment for Inland Empire Medicare patients.

Job Training and Service:

Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act - Tripled volunteerism opportunities to 250,000 national service spots for students to retirees; creating new service corps for education, health care, energy and veterans; expanding civic engagement and allowing for older Americans to apply a lifetime of skills to address national, state and local needs. (H.R. 1388 signed into Law)

Creating More Opportunities for Older Workers- Voted to direct $615 million, $43.5 million more than this year, to provide community service opportunities for nearly 100,000 low-income seniors. (HR 3293, passed in House)

Retirement and Security:

Supporting Seniors and the Disabled - Voted to provide $11.4 billion to helping the Social Security Administration (SSA) address several challenges, including processing a rising number of retirement and disability claims, reducing the backlog of disability claims, and improving service to the public. (HR 3293, passed in House)

Opposing Privatization of Social Security – Continued to adamantly oppose the privatization of Social Security, and instead supported improving the retirement needs of our senior citizens.

Social Security Fairness - Supported eliminating the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision to ensure that federal employees and their survivors are compensated for their contributions to the social security system. (H.R.235)

Fair Compensation for Disabled Military Retirees - Permitted veterans medically retired from active service to receive both military retirement and Veterans Disability Compensation. (H.R.2990)

Federal Retirement Reform – Voted to modernize retirement savings plans for federal employees and members of the Armed Forces, including increasing amount paid to surviving spouses denied the full amount of their annuity under the Survivor Benefit Plan, and ending the military family tax which unfairly penalizes the survivors of those who died in service or as a result of their service connected injuries. (H.R.1804)

Fighting Elder Abuse - Supported establishing specialized elder abuse prosecution and research programs and activities to aid victims of elder abuse and to provide relevant training to prosecutors and others who work in law enforcement. (H.R.448)

Senior Housing:

Increasing Housing for the Elderly - Ten eligible seniors are on the waiting list for every one unit of housing available. Voted to provide $1 billion to rehabilitate and build housing for low-income elderly people, and $8.7 billion for Section 8 Project Based Vouchers to provide affordable housing to 1.3 million low-income families and individuals, two-thirds of whom are elderly or disabled. This assistance is crucial to the seniors. (HR 3288, passed in House)

Seniors in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act:

One-Time $250 payments - Provided one-time $250 payment to retirees, disabled veterans and Social Security Income (SSI) recipients. Over 50 million retirees and other individuals received these payments.

Addressing Social Security Disability Backlog - Increased funding for the Social Security Administration to address the disability claims backlog.

Meals for Seniors - Provides $100 million for senior nutrition programs, of which include $65 million for congregate meals and $32 million for home-delivered meals, in total providing for an additional 14 million meals nationwide.

Extending Low Income Medicare Programs - Adds an additional year for the Qualified Individual Program, which assist certain individuals with Medicare Part B premiums.

Blocking Cuts to Hospice Medicare payments - Halts a scheduled cut of $134 million to Medicare payments for hospice providers.

Older Workers Program Boost - Provides $120 million for the Title V Older Workers Program, which provides part-time employment and training opportunities for low-income adults age 55 and older.

Restocking Food Banks - Provides $150 million for the Emergency Food Assistance Program to restock the shelves of food banks which serve thousands of low-income families, including seniors.

Training for Healthcare Workforce - Directed funding for nurse and primary care training and additional research funding.

Seniors

Job Training and Service:

Retirement and Security:

Senior Housing:

Seniors in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act:

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