Struggling Seniors Say Social Security Benefits Must be Expanded
Members of Congress heard from some genuine experts on Social Security – older Americans who have to survive on their benefit checks each and every month. The seniors appeared via video at a hearing of the House Ways & Means Social Security subcommittee, chaired by Rep. John Larson (D-CT). Congressman Larson is the primary force behind Social Security reform on Capitol Hill, championing the strengthening of the program and expansion of benefits. His Social Security 2100 Act would do both, though he reportedly is reworking the legislation to better align with President Biden’s proposals in this area.
The witnesses at the hearing – all retirees from different parts of the country – spoke earnestly and often passionately about the challenges of making ends meet on their current Social Security benefits, while expressing gratitude for the program which has kept seniors out of poverty for more than 85 years.
Julian Blair
Retired, U.S. Military
Washington, D.C.
“I started contributing to Social Security when I was 15 years old, working a summer job. Social Security is a critical part of my income. But though I paid into it my whole working life, my Social Security benefit is far too low to cover my monthly expenses. It is beyond time for Congress to get behind expanding, not cutting, our invaluable benefits. No one will get rich if you increase Social Security, but it will allow us to live with dignity.”
Elba Lopez
Retired Seamstress
Philadelphia, PA
“I am a widow and I rely on Social Security as a major source of income. But it doesn’t pay enough for electricity, gas, food, rent, insurance and clothing. I’m lucky that my daughter can help me financially, but I don’t want to be a burden. An increase in my Social Security income would allow me to be more independent. It would give me peace of mind, knowing that I could meet my basic needs after all those years of working.”
Cora McDonnell
Retired Shipping Clerk
Seattle, WA
“My husband passed away in 1994. I also was laid off after 14 years on the job at Airborne Express. Without Social Security widow’s benefits, I could not have survived. I would have been homeless and unable to take care of my son, who suffers from ulcerative colitis. Social Security paid the bills, put food on the table for me and my son and a roof over our head. It was essential to me as a widow and single mother. I do wonder, though, why benefits have not changed in the past 50 years.”
Kitty Ruderman
Retiree
Queens, NY
“Social Security is by far the bulk of my income. I need every penny to make ends meet, and even that isn’t enough. My rent alone exceeds my monthly Social Security payment. In previous years, I could supplement my retirement income by taking on extra work, but that has become increasingly difficult due to my crippling arthritis. This has left me even more reliant on Social Security and even more concerned about the future of the program. I urge Congress to ensure Social Security stays strong for generations to come.”
The witnesses’ testimony buttressed Rep. Larson’s argument that Social Security benefits must be boosted to meet retirees’ actual needs, including a fairer formula for calculating cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). He pointed out that the average Social Security benefit of roughly $18,500 a year is only slightly above the federal poverty line, and that some people’s benefits are below it. “Who could live on that?” he asked.
The Congressman emphasized the importance of Congress taking bold action on Social Security now, instead of “kicking the can down the road.” Benefits have not been increased in 50 years, Larson said. And the last time that Social Security was strengthened, he reminded the committee, was in 1983.
Ranking Republican Tom Reed (R-NY) called for more incremental measures to establish bipartisan “trust” on the issue – and to lay a foundation for major changes later. Committee member Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC) said that both Republicans and Democrats want “to enhance benefits for all retirees,” yet Rice and many other GOP members of Congress cosponsored a bill from the subcommittee’s former Chairman, Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX), that would have raised the retirement age to 69, a drastic benefit cut.
Other Republicans have called for “entitlements” to be “reformed” (code word for ‘cut’) in the wake of the deficit-swelling Trump/GOP tax cuts, even though Social Security does not contribute to the federal deficit.
Congressman Larson said a vote on comprehensive Social Security legislation is “long overdue.” His Social Security 2100 Act would extend the solvency of the trust fund until nearly the end of the century, boost benefits across the board by 2%, and provide for a more generous COLA formula. “There is an opportunity to have people vote and be counted and show what they stand for,” he said. “That would be a real profile in courage.”
Supreme Court Ruling a Victory for Older Americans
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare applauds today’s Supreme Court ruling leaving the Affordable Care Act in place:
“Millions of older Americans can breathe a sigh of relief with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act. The justices’ decision protects enhancements in health coverage for ‘near seniors’ aged 55-65 and Medicare beneficiaries, as well. The Affordable Care Act limits the premiums insurers can charge based on age, protects patients with pre-existing conditions, and improves Medicare coverage – including a broad array of preventative services with no out-of-pocket cost to seniors and phasing out the ‘donut hole’ in Part D prescription coverage. The justices rightly turned back this latest attempt by conservatives to strip tens of millions of Americans of health coverage. With the ACA safe from legal challenges for now, let’s redouble our efforts to expand affordability and access to health care for the near seniors, seniors, and all other Americans who need it.” – Max Richtman, President & CEO, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
Prescription Drug Pricing Reform – What happens now?
Seniors and their advocates had high hopes for prescription drug pricing reform when President Biden took office with majorities – however slim – in both houses of Congress. Those were heady days, following four years of obstruction on drug pricing. Democrats (and some Republicans) tried to enact commonsense reforms during the Trump administration, but were obstructed by then-Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. Meanwhile, President Trump paid lip service to lowering drug prices, but didn’t lean on Republicans to act. Today, action to reduce soaring drug costs seems stuck again, to the disappointment of most Americans – who continue pay the highest prescription prices in the world.
Advocates had hoped that drug price reform would be part of President Biden’s American Families infrastructure plan, but it was noticeably excluded. The President’s 2022 budget proposal called for lowering prescription prices – but only as a broad policy goal. Most Republicans continue to oppose aggressive cost control measures, and some moderate Democrats appear hesitant to directly challenge Big Pharma. After pushing through legislation in 2019, House leadership has not put muscle behind enacting reforms during this Congress.
So what happens now? There is no lack of conviction on the part of drug price reformers on Capitol Hill. Democrats re-introduced the House-passed Elijah Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3), which would – among other measures – finally allow Medicare to negotiate prices with Big Pharma (just like the VA does). Polling indicates that this policy enjoys wide public support, even among majorities of Republican voters.
The Washington Post reports that House Democrats are making an effort to include elements of H.R. 3 in infrastructure legislation this summer:
“House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) told reporters yesterday that he’s aiming to get the measure attached to the package — a package that almost certainly represents Democrats’ best shot this year at turning their top priorities into law.” – Washington Post, 6/8/21
Drug pricing legislation faces considerable challenges in the 50-50 Senate, where most bills need at least 60 votes to pass. In the last Congress, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) offered a bill that did not include Medicare negotiation, but would have imposed penalties and controls to try to contain Big Pharma price hikes. That legislation was blocked by then-Majority Leader McConnell and failed to win support from most Republican senators.
Reformers now hope that an infrastructure package including drug pricing provisions might be pushed through the Senate using the budget reconciliation process (similar to the American Rescue Plan relief act earlier this year). Interestingly enough, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), who opposes eliminating the filibuster and forcing additional legislation through the Senate via reconciliation, has himself sponsored legislation allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
Dan Adcock, Director of Government Relations and Policy at the National Committee, characterizes reconciliation as the best and only chance of enacting prescription pricing reform during this Congress. “Amending Medicare to include prescription drug price negotiation is totally fair game,” he says. President Biden would likely sign any prescription drug pricing legislation that manages to work its way through the House and Senate.
Of course, Medicare price negotiation may not survive the legislative process this time around, but other measures similar to the Wyden-Grassley bill (such as tying drug price increases to inflation or to what other countries pay) might make it through. “We would like to get something as comprehensive as H.R. 3,” says Adcock. “But politics is the art of the possible, and it may be possible to get something less than that which still could help limit price gouging.”
Biden Budget Bolsters Seniors
photo by Greg Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons
President Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal for 2022 demonstrates a bold commitment to America’s seniors – from improved customer service for Social Security beneficiaries to prescription drug pricing reform to expanded Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS). This White House spending plan is a welcome change after four years of Trump budgets that sought to slash Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security by hundreds of billions of dollars.
“President Biden’s 2020 budget bolsters America’s seniors in major ways. With 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day – and the number of seniors projected to double by 2050 – it’s clear that the President understands the need to safeguard the older Americans he calls ‘pillars of every community,’ now and into the future.” – Max Richtman, NCPSSM President and CEO, 6/1/21
The President proposes a $1.3 billion (or 9.7%) funding increase for the Social Security Administration, which saw deep budget cuts over the past decade – and struggled to provide adequate customer service before and during the pandemic. Beneficiaries have endured shuttered field offices, countless hours on hold for assistance on SSA’s toll-free number, and painfully long delays awaiting Social Security Disability Insurance hearings. Some of these issues have slightly improved, but the new infusion of funds that President Biden requests could significantly boost customer service.
The President’s budget proposal also urges Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate prices for certain high-cost, life-saving drugs that many seniors currently cannot afford. The President also calls for requiring manufacturers to pay rebates when drug prices rise faster than inflation. In the continued absence of action to regulate costs, Big Pharma hiked the prices of more than 800 drugs this year by an average of 4.6%. Meanwhile, 36% of Americans in a 2021 survey said they are forgoing their prescription medications in order to pay for other living essentials.
President Biden’s prescription drug reform proposals could not only save seniors from soaring drug prices, the savings from these reforms could be used to add much-needed dental, vision, and hearing coverage to Medicare. Today, traditional Medicare does not cover even routine care like dental checkups or hearing aids.
The White House budget also includes more than $400 billion in new spending over ten years to expand HCBS for seniors who prefer to receive skilled care in the comfort of their homes and communities, even more so after the devastation COVID wrought on nursing homes.
The release of the President’s budget allows Congress to begin negotiating funding levels and spending bills. President Biden proposes to pay for his ambitious agenda by increasing taxes on corporations and high earners, who received a windfall from the Trump/GOP tax cuts of 2017.
President Biden’s New Medicare and Medicaid Chief can be a Champion for Older Women
It’s a historic week for Medicare and Medicaid – and for American women. On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Chiquita Brooks-LaSure as the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). She becomes the first Black woman to head the agency that administers health care for more than 100 million Americans, including and especially seniors.
This is a milestone for women striving for greater retirement security, because retirement security depends on access to affordable, quality health care. Brooks-LaSure, who served as a health care policy official under President Obama, will bring a lifetime of experience and perspective to her role. Who better to lead CMS at a time when all women, but especially women of color, lag behind men in retirement security? (Visit Eleanor’s Hope for more information on gender equity issues affecting working and retired women.)
Brooks-LaSure represents a welcome change of direction for CMS. She replaces President Trump’s CMS chief, Seema Verma, who left the job when Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20th. Verma – a corporatist conservative idealogue – spent four years undermining traditional Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. She was anything but an ally for older women.
By comparison, Brooks-LaSure was “championed by allies on Capitol Hill, including the Congressional Black Caucus,” according to the Washington Post. She no doubt will be a powerful advocate for President Biden’s legislative efforts to boost health care access – especially for older Americans. President Biden campaigned on a platform of expanding not only Medicaid, but Medicare – a key goal for the National Committee and our members and supporters across the country.
These programs are crucial to the retirement security of millions of women. Nearly 60 percent of low-income seniors who receive Medicaid benefits are women. Older women depend on Medicaid more than older men because they have a longer life expectancy, less income, higher poverty rates and multiple chronic conditions that require long-term services.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed states to greatly expand Medicaid coverage, which also benefitted women with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line. In expanding Medicaid, the ACA extended a health care lifeline to women of color, single mothers, and women without a high school degree who may not have previously qualified for benefits.
Medicare is another crucial program that can benefit from LaSure’s leadership. The Kaiser Family Foundation calls it “a critical source of health insurance coverage for virtually all older women in the U.S.”
“Medicare helps to make health care more affordable for older women at a time in their lives when they are most likely to have multiple health problems that require ongoing and often costly medical treatment. Today, one in five adult women relies on Medicare for basic health insurance protection. In fact, women comprise 57% of the Medicare population.” – Kaiser Family Foundation
President Biden’s new Medicare and Medicaid administrator no doubt will work to strengthen the two programs – along with the Affordable Care Act – after four years of Trump administration attempts to weaken them. President Trump proposed cutting Medicare and Medicaid by over $1 trillion dollars in successive White House budget blueprints. His administration, under CMS chief Verma, encouraged states to impose work requirements on low-income Medicaid beneficiaries – and promoted private Medicare Advantage plans over traditional Medicare.
Brooks-LaSure no doubt will be a key player in the administration’s efforts to strengthen and expand Medicare and Medicaid. There is much work to be done, including adding hearing, vision, and dental benefits to traditional Medicare, and lowering prescription drug prices that sometimes force seniors to choose between paying the rent or paying for medicine. The appointment of Brooks-LaSure does not ensure instant progress – but it’s a meaningful start. After four years of enduring an antagonist in the CMS director’s chair, older women will finally have a champion.