Medicare
Strengthening Medicare
There are few promises as important as the one we made more than four decades ago to provide quality, affordable health care for all American seniors through Medicare. Every day, 48 million seniors and disabled Americans count on Medicare for their life-saving medications, doctor visits, and hospital care. As the state with the third highest senior population in America, more than two million Pennsylvania seniors depend on Medicare. As millions of baby boomers enter Medicare over the next decade, we must demand improved quality, increased efficiency, fiscal responsibility, and cost containment in Medicare.
With expanded benefits, reduced costs for prescription drugs, increased access to primary care doctors, and free preventive care services—we achieved a critical goal of strengthening Medicare for America’s seniors through the Affordable Care Act.
Prescription Drugs: The Affordable Care Act takes steps to address the gap in prescription drug coverage under Medicare known as the donut hole that left many seniors with no choice but to stop taking life-saving medications or go broke paying out-of-pocket expenses. As the law is implemented, seniors who reach the coverage gap will gradually receive a 50 percent discount on covered brand-name drugs. The Affordable Care Act closes the prescription drug “donut hole” and has already helped more than 180,000 seniors in Pennsylvania afford their medications.
In addition, the eligibility for the Medicare Low-Income Subsidy Program has been expanded so people with limited incomes can qualify to have their Part D premiums paid and reduce their co-payments at the pharmacy counter.
Primary Care: High-quality health care requires that patients have primary care providers they know and who know them, who are available to see them when they are sick, and who stay engaged in their health care progress. Currently, more than 1.3 million Medicare beneficiaries have difficulty finding a primary care physician due to a severe shortage of primary care providers in the United States. I championed efforts to increase payments to primary care providers who treat Medicare beneficiaries to ensure seniors have access to critical health services.
Free Prevention Services: Millions of seniors have received free preventive care services and annual wellness checkups that are making a difference in their overall health.
The following preventive services are at no cost to Medicare beneficiaries:
- Mammograms
- Colonoscopies
- Bone mass measurements
- Cardiovascular screenings
- Diabetes screenings
- Prostate Cancer Screenings
- Flu Shots
Fighting Efforts to End Medicare
Unfortunately, the Republican Majority in Congress is working to undo this progress by repealing the Affordable Care Act and stripping seniors of these important benefits. Congressional Republicans put forward a plan to end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher program. This means seniors would be on their own to purchase health insurance on the individual market with a voucher of limited value. This proposal does nothing to reduce costs; it merely shifts the cost burden onto our seniors and their families.
With the Republican voucher plan, seniors could face hurdles in purchasing insurance on the individual market, including discrimination or higher premiums based on age, illness, or income. Under this proposal, seniors could face higher costs, lower quality of care, fewer benefits, or reduced access to care.
Privatizing Medicare means:
- Limits on benefits
- Obstacles to care and uncertain reimbursements
- Co-payments for primary care and specialty care
- Exclusions for certain services
- Discrimination based on age, illness, or income
- Uncertainty if serious illness or need for long-term care occurs
The Republican voucher plan eliminates the foundation of Medicare – which has been a lifeline for older Americans, providing them with the quality, affordable health coverage they need and deserve. I will continue to fight to protect and preserve the Medicare guarantee for America’s seniors now and in the future.
Transforming the Broken Medicare Payment System
Nearly 50 years ago, we made a promise to ensure quality, affordable healthcare for all American seniors. In order to protect that promise, we must promote excellence and efficiency in Medicare, while being more fiscally responsible.
One of the most important ways we can achieve those critical goals is to fix the broken Medicare physician payment system, which has created uncertainty and instability for seniors, health care providers, and the federal budget for decades.
Because of the failed physician payment system, there is a looming crisis facing seniors and the doctors who care for them. Doctors could be hit with a scheduled reduction in Medicare payments of more than 30 percent. If these cuts ever go into effect, it could mean tens of millions of seniors no longer have access to their doctors and essential health care services. This is unacceptable.
For too long, Congress has failed to seriously tackle the issue of physician payment reform, and instead kicked the can down the road with short-term fixes that has now created a long-term fiscal nightmare.
This has been the absolute wrong approach for American seniors and our federal budget. That is why I have been working hard to protect seniors’ access to their doctors by putting forward a plan to fix this broken system once and for all.
In May, I introduced bipartisan legislation with Rep. Joe Heck (R-NV). Our plan, the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act, ends the broken physician reimbursement system and replaces it with a new, long-term plan that will treat physicians fairly, improve patient outcomes, and reduce costs in Medicare. It also sets us on a long-term path toward greater quality, value, and fiscal responsibility in Medicare and will save billions for taxpayers over the long run. This bill has been endorsed by the American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Physicians, the American Geriatrics Society, and other leading organizations.
Republicans and Democrats across the ideological spectrum agree that the payment system must be repealed and that the rate of growth in health care spending in the United States is unsustainable. But, even with strong bipartisan support, political hurdles still remain.
I believe we must set aside politics and work together to enact a fiscally responsible and permanent solution to solve this problem. We owe it to American seniors to end this perennial threat to Medicare once and for all.
I will continue to fight for passage of the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act and stand up for millions of American seniors who depend on access to their doctors for everyday and lifesaving care.