Congressional candidates consider senior health care costs

Each week the Sun-Gazette queries candidates on various issues.

This week's slate of candidates responding to questions are: Chris Hackett, Republican, and U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-Dimock, 10th Congress; and Mark McCracken, Democrat, James Fryman, Libertarian, and Glenn Thompson, Republican, 5th Congress.

Candidates were asked the following question:

With the graying of America, including the vast Baby Boomer population, a strain will be put on health care services to help the elderly in coming years. Many feel it's time to be proactive on these issues rather than reactive. What are your thoughts on providing for this population? Do we need to take steps to better ensure services such as Medicare and Social Security adequately fund the medical needs of many of these people?

10th Congress

Hackett: "One of the major problems we face is the rising cost of healthcare. We need to give individuals including seniors more choice in their healthcare. By making healthcare portable across state lines, we can increase competition and drive down prices. Right now the regulatory environment in Pennsylvania does not allow real market-driven forces the ability to drive down health care costs, and this needs to change to help curb costs.

"I also think we need to allow the government to work and contract directly with U.S. drug manufactures to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors. Again, by allowing this free market pressure, we can begin to drive down the price of prescription drugs.

"We need to make it easier for individuals to purchase healthcare with pre-tax dollars. Right now corporations receive benefits to purchase healthcare, but small businesses and individuals are at a disadvantage. I think we should triple the amount of dollars that people can use with pre-tax money for health care accounts.

"We need to work hard to make sure that our commitment to seniors stays on course through Medicare and Social Security entitlements that seniors have paid into and for through their working careers.

"I will work hard to protect the promise we've made to our seniors. Social Security and Medicare are two of this nation's most successful programs and honoring our obligation to seniors is of vital importance to me."

Carney: "In these tough economic times, people need to know that their retirement is secure. That is why I will always fight to ensure that Social Security is a guaranteed benefit for future generations of workers, retirees, and their families. I will never support privatization of Social Security ...

"Since its inception, our Social Security system has successfully kept millions of Americans out of poverty. Social Security is not a gamble. We cannot let it be jeopardized by market fluctuations, and Congress must protect Social Security from inflation. Workers should have opportunities and incentives to invest for their retirement, but not as a replacement for guaranteed Social Security benefits.

"We do need action in Congress to make sure Social Security benefits exist for generations to come and that our seniors are able to make ends meet. That is why I am supporting legislation to establish a Consumer Price Index (CPI) for our seniors. This CPI would determine cost-of-living increases for both Social Security and Medicare benefits. Currently, benefits are a based on a CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which tracks the spending habits of younger workers in big cities who have drastically different spending habits than America's seniors. Seniors spend far more of their income on health care and prescription drugs ...

"Today, a lot of families are taking on the responsibility of caring for an aging parent. We should be helping these families in need, and helping seniors stay close to their loved ones. That is why I teamed up with Republican Congressman Todd Platts of Pennsylvania to introduce the Caregiver Tax Relief Act of 2008 (HR 6448). This bill creates a $2,500 tax credit to be used by an individual caring for an individual with long-term care needs. The Caregiver Tax Relief Act provides assistance to seniors and their families, and makes it easier for these families to stay together ...

"In addition to lower costs of health care, we need to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and to increase access to them."

5th Congress

McCracken: "The issue isn't so much the number of elderly people who will need health care services and long-term care but the cost of the care. The time has come to admit that there are too many administrative costs being added on to all health care services. We should be concentrating on providing coverage to the patients who need it and remove add-on costs, typically 25 to 30 percent, that go directly to pay excessive costs for the health insurance industry and big salaries for their corporate executives.

"We also have to realize that the federal government will continue to have problems funding Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security until the president and members of Congress commit to balancing the budget, building a surplus and paying down the federal debt that is now over $11 trillion. Because of the poor fiscal policy from the last eight years, we cannot afford to even take care of our own people."

Fryman: "The best thing we can do to make health care and health care insurance both more affordable for the elderly and all Americans is to rein in big insurance. Our current system is health care insurance and health maintenance combined. We need to get insurance companies out of the health maintenance business, i.e. routine doctor calls, mole removal, simple bone breaks. Insurance should only cover catastrophic expenses and payments should be made directly to the insured. Health care professionals, clinics, and hospitals could reduce health care charges enormously if they were not bogged down by processing insurance claims. They would not have to pay for extra floor area, wages for extra clerks, and they would not have to itemize bills down to each Band-Aid and suture. The price of routine health care costs could then be paid out of pocket. Plus, health care insurance premium costs would drop dramatically.

Social Security should be maintained with payments from the general fund, if necessary. The government has a contract with Americans who have paid in to provide this service.

Thompson: "I will fight for you to assure that those who have paid in for years will receive Social Security payments when they retire and that quality healthcare will be accessible under the Medicare system. But we do have a problem with our current system.

"Starting in 2011, the Baby Boomer generation starts to retire, putting more pressure on a system already in trouble. The Social Security Administration Commission reports that by 2018 we will not have enough workers to sustain payments to recipients. Their analysis reveals that if nothing is done to reform the system, by 2032 taxes will need to increase to 18 percent on individuals ...

"First, we must end spending Social Security money for other purposes and exercise fiscal discipline with the federal budget. Next, we must consider our children and grandchildren and safeguard retirement for them. To do that, I plan on allowing young workers to do what federal government employees already can do - invest part of their retirement funds in alternative investments yielding higher returns (Thrift Savings Plan) ...

For health care services we must be pro-active in assuring that quality health care remains accessible. As a 27-year health care provider, health care is an important issue in which I bring significant experience as a therapist, health care manager and licensed nursing home administrator. My "Prescription for America's Health" is designed to address access, affordability and quality of health care. The increased utilization by this large retiring generation requires us to reduce cost, not access. This includes peeling away the regulations that only add cost and decrease access to cost-effective care and tort reform.