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On the Issues: Medicare Reform

Senior citizens already hit hard by our nation’s economic crisis were dealt another devastating blow in the month of May when the Social Security Administration announced they will not receive any Cost of Living Adjustments in 2010 or 2011. At least one in five seniors depend on Social Security as their sole source of income, but for years, the buying power of these checks has dwindled in the face of skyrocketing health care and prescription drug costs.

Cost of living adjustments (COLAs) are calculated using the Consumer Price Index, which has reported deflation due to the economic recession. Unfortunately for America’s seniors, this index monitors the price of goods and services for younger, working Americans who do not spend nearly as much money on increasingly expensive medical costs. For example, seniors pay premiums for Medicare’s prescription drug plan – a plan that has already hiked monthly payments by 24 percent. Drug costs have also surged. Within the past year, the prices of 26 brand name drugs increased by 100 percent. More and more seniors are being faced with the impossible choice between food and medicine.

Congress must take swift action to reform health care and help senior citizens better shoulder skyrocketing medical costs. Currently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is conducting studies to determine the true cost of living for seniors. With Representative Gonzales of Texas, I am introducing the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act of 2009 (H.R. 2429) to require the Social Administration to use this new standard when determining yearly COLAs.

I have also filed the Medicare Prescription Drug Affordability Act (H.R. 1832), which would prevent the cost of Medicare Part D premiums from rising faster than increases to Social Security.  This year, seniors received a mere 5.8 percent increase in their Social Security checks while Medicare drug plan premiums increased by 24 percent. My legislation would also require the federal government to negotiate with drug companies for lower costs. In these tough economic times, seniors and disabled-Americans, who are receiving little or no cost of living adjustments, are struggling to make ends meet.  It is not too much to ask drug companies to also make some sacrifices.

Improving and protecting Social Security is a major priority of mine. For more information, please visit my Social Security issue page.