Politics & Government

Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly: U.S. Can Afford Medicare

Comments made during Town Hall Meeting at Greenspring Living Community

Speaking to about 100 Greenspring residents at his Town Hall meeting on Monday, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11) said it's false to say that the United States cannot afford Medicare. 

"There's no question that we have to make the system more efficient, but the choice does not have to be all or nothing," said Connolly.

Connolly said Medicare loses $60 - $80 billion every year due to waste, abuse and fraud. "I know that we can ID efficiencies to put it on solid financial footing," he said. 

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Howard Houghton, Fairfax County's coordinator of the Virginia Insurance Counseling and Assistance Program, agreed. "If we curb these fraud problems, we will have more money," he said.

When Medicare was created in 1965, the program guaranteed affordable health care to disabled Americans and all citizens age 65 and older. About 90 percent of seniors over 65 participate in Medicare, about 47 million people, according to Lester Austin, senior public affairs specialist for the Social Security Administration.

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Joanne Grossi, regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, agreed that Medicare can be made more solvent.  "Secretary Sebelius [of the Department of Health and Human Services] and Attorney General Eric Holder are holding fraud seminars across the U.S.," she said.  "In the last six months alone we've recovered $4.2 billion."

The discussion of Medicare and Social Security led to questions about the current stalemate over raising the debt ceiling. "We've raised the debt limit 39 times since 1980," said Connolly. "It has never before been so controversial. But in the election last November, some officials vowed that they would not raise the debt ceiling for any reason. Congresswoman Bachmann isn't even looking at the package."

"Raising the debt ceiling is to make good on the obligations we've already made," said Connolly. "It's not about the future. It's a reckless thing to deny the debt we owe."

Virginia's State Director of AARP, Bill Kallio, also a panel member, said that Medicare and Medicaid are vital for senior Americans. "Most seniors are concerned about health care costs outpacing their income," he said. "They made good decisions to plan for thier retirement and now they're dazed because of the great recession." 

Kallio said that a recent poll of AARP's one million plus members in Virginia put their top three concerns as economic security, health security, and staying independent. "We already know that medicare recipients pay about $3,000 a year in out-of-pocket expenses," said Kallio. "In addition, seven out of 10 people over 65 are going to need some kind of long term support in thier lifetime," he said.  For those reasons, he believes maintaining Social Security and Medicare are vital.   

"Social Security has not contributed one dime to the federal deficit," he said. "The real debate should be looking at the issues, not line items on a budget." 

But not all spending is equal, and not all spending is bad, said Connolly. "Debt in and of itself is not good or bad. But if it's too high, that's bad," he said. "The U.S. debt is too high... It must be brought down. We need to be reasonable. It will take a mixture of spending cuts and revenue generators.

"We can take benefit cuts off the table because we have other alternatives to look at. The Congressional Budget Office says that 80 percent of our deficit is a legacy of the Bush years... The Bush tax cuts will cost us $3.3 trillion over the next ten years. When we had the higher tax rates, we had higher job growth," Connolly said.


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