As part of health care reform, I was committed to making sure that we fixed what’s broken in the health care system and strengthened what’s working. For 46 years, Medicare has provided critical health care and financial stability for seniors and people with disabilities – and it’s working for seniors in western and central Wisconsin. Under health care reform, Medicare was strengthened and improved by:

• Immediately lowering prescription drug costs for the 8,800 seniors in western Wisconsin stuck in the ‘donut hole’ and ultimately closes it altogether by 2020. The bill provides a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries who hit the donut hole in 2010. Drug manufacturers started providing 50% discount on brand-name drugs in the donut hole.
• Eliminating Medicare co-payments for preventive care so that seniors will pay nothing on recommended preventive services that will keep them healthier longer. It also limited cost-sharing requirements in Medicare Advantage plans to the amount charged for the same services in traditional Medicare coverage and improved payment accuracy to ensure that Medicare pays the right amount for health services.
• Fighting waste, fraud and abuse in the system by strengthening existing enforcement and compliance tools and eliminating overpayments to providers. New penalties were created for submitting false data on applications, false claims for payment, or for obstructing audits or investigations related to Medicare or Medicaid.

Medicare is an important program that is working for our seniors. I supported health care reform because it strengthens and improves this vital program and protects it for years to come. Reform also ensures the sustainability of our health care system and provides stable, affordable, high-quality health care to all Americans.

Protecting Social Security

As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over Social Security, I am committed to finding responsible solutions to address the long-term financing challenges facing the program. I know we can find a way to ensure Social Security remains strong for today’s seniors while making sure future generations can rely on it too. As part of my commitment to protect its solvency, I strongly oppose privatizing Social Security because it would rob money from the system that is needed to pay benefits for today’s seniors. We cannot leave the emergency retirement money of our nation to be subject to the ups and downs of the stock market.

In 2005, when some members of Congress tried to privatize the program, I fought hard to save Social Security from this effort to destroy it, putting our seniors’ financial security at risk. When the stock market plunged and the housing bubble burst, there was one thing America’s seniors could count on - Social Security. There are those in Congress today that are again threatening to privatize Social Security. We cannot allow that to happen. I have fought to keep Social Security strong for today’s seniors and generations to come.

According to the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees, Social Security has enough money to pay 100% of benefits for decades to come through payroll taxes and the Trust Fund. During the decades before Social Security's finances reach a critical point, I believe the Social Security Trust Fund surplus should be reserved for Social Security payments alone. Protecting the Social Security surplus from being raided for other spending will protect the program and prevent us from having to increase the deficit to make sure seniors get the benefits they’ve earned.

Economic Stability for Seniors

Seniors, like so many Americans, are struggling at this time and are worried about the present and future. I am working every day on behalf of the seniors in western Wisconsin to rebuild our economy and protect the programs most important to them. We’re making tough choices to turn this country around and put us on a path towards shared prosperity for generations to come.

Protecting seniors and their income from financial frauds and schemes so they have money for the things they need is also critical.  That’s why I supported new and tougher regulations on the banking industry through the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act which bans unfair rate increases and forbids the abusive fees and penalties that credit card companies have inflicted on America’s seniors.