Issue Position: Protecting Minnesota's Seniors

Issue Position

When Medicare and Social Security were enacted, they lifted a generation of seniors out of poverty. Since then they've been a promise we've kept to each succeeding generation, allowing Americans to retire with dignity. That's why I oppose any changes that would cut, privatize, or jeopardize these programs.

We should look for ways to strengthen both programs, instead of using the retirement of millions of Americans as a political football. This includes allowing Medicare to negotiate for the best prices on prescription drugs, eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse of both programs, and shoring up their funding -- even if it requires asking millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share.

In addition, we must also do more to prevent elder abuse. Altogether, the Minnesota Department of Human Services receives nearly 1,000 reports of elder abuse every week. Too often, those closest to vulnerable adults are the ones taking advantage of them, causing victims to hesitate before taking action. As leaders, we must do what we can to empower social workers, caretakers, and seniors themselves to identify, prevent, report, and end this abuse.

Finally, we must combat the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs. In order to start to combat the high cost of prescription drugs, we must allow Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies just as we already do in the VA. In addition, we must work to end anti-competitive "pay-for-delay" deals, and allow individuals to reimport individual supplies of medication from approved pharmacies in Canada.

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