Issue Position: Seniors

Issue Position

Burdensome federal regulations are making access to our domestic energy sources more difficult and expensive. Higher energy prices means higher prices on food, gas, medicines, and the cost of housing, which is placing financial hardships on America's seniors.

While the cost of many goods has decreased, many staples in senior lives have not. In particular, health care costs and energy costs continue to take a bigger and bigger bite out of many folks' Social Security benefits.

Social Security has proven to be a very successful program, keeping millions of Americans from suffering extreme poverty in their retirement.

Cuts to Medicare that were included in Obamacare, and the failure to enact long-term reform to Medicare's physician payment system will be detrimental to seniors, as some doctors will find it too expensive to continue to provide care to Medicare patients.

Believes that there are common-sense approaches to addressing Medicare's long-term financing challenges. We can start with reforms that target waste and fraud in the system.

Strongly supports efforts to make prescription drugs more affordable and preserve beneficiary access for Medicare Part D.

Believes that because the number of retired workers is projected to double in less than 30 years as baby-boomers enter retirement age, it is vital that we take action to improve and strengthen health care for current and future retirees.

Action

Supports the Protecting Seniors' Access to Medicare Act of 2013 (H.R. 351), which would permanently repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). The IPAB is a 15-member board of non-elected officials charged with recommending Medicare spending reductions. This would result in bureaucrats, not doctors, making health decisions for seniors.

Supports the Death Tax Repeal Act of 2013 (H.R. 2429), which would permanently repeal the estate tax and ensure that individuals are not taxed on the increased value of an estate by retaining the stepped-up basis at death.

Supports Prompt Pay legislation (H.R. 800), which would ensure seniors continue to have access to lifesaving medical treatments. This legislation amends the Social Security Act to ensure that providers receive adequate payments for drugs they administer under Part B of the Medicare Program.

Supports the Medicare Beneficiary Preservation of Choice Act of 2013 (H.R. 2453), which would restore the open enrollment period that, until 2011, enabled seniors to switch Medicare Advantage plans once during the first three months of each year.

Led a bipartisan letter that was signed by 31 Members of the House to CMS Administratior Marilyn Tavenner to raise concerns about preferred pharmacy networks and to urge CMS to expand the opportunities for all pharmacies to join and compete with these networks on a level playing field.

Introduced the bipartisan Ensuring Seniors Access to Local Pharmacies Act of 2014 (H.R. 4577) with Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) to allow any willing pharmacy located within medically underserved or health professional shortage areas, like our rural communities in Southwest Virginia, to participate in Medicare Part D preferred networks. While Medicare Part D preferred pharmacy network plans were designed to make prescription drugs more affordable for beneficiaries, these plans have created confusion for seniors and put community pharmacies at a competitive disadvantage. Some seniors, especially in rural areas, have reported having to travel upwards of 20 miles in order to get their medications from a preferred pharmacy network because their local community pharmacy was not given the opportunity to participate in such a network. For me, this is an issue of fairness for all those who make their home in rural America.

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