Seniors

Social Security and Medicare are contracts between the government and generations of Americans who have worked hard to pay into these programs over a lifetime. For many of our seniors, they are a lifeline and need to be strengthened and protected. Rep. Peters will keep working to ensure comfort, security, financial stability, and agency for older Americans. This means fighting to make sure seniors have access to the affordable health care they need and providing them with the services necessary to age with dignity.

Protect and Strengthen Americans’ Retirement Benefits

As a member of the Congressional Seniors Task Force, Rep. Peters has fought for years to preserve seniors’ access to their retirement benefits, including:

• Consistently opposing efforts to cut or privatize Social Security and Medicare.
• Cosponsoring the Social Security Fairness Act which would eliminate benefit reductions for retirees, disabled workers, and their spouses with pensions outside the Social Security system.
• Leading the Saving for the Future Act to mitigate the retirement savings crisis and help expand Americans’ opportunity to build the wealth necessary to enjoy a healthy and secure retirement.
• Cosponsoring the Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act which cracks down on fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid system and ensures that these programs are able to provide help to those who need them.

Guarantee that seniors can access the health care they need.

Rep. Peters knows that access to affordable and effective health care is a top priority for seniors. He has taken numerous steps to ensure that seniors are able to receive the best care possible. During his time in Congress, Rep. Peters has:

• Introduced the Saving Access to Lab Services Act to help seniors secure accurate diagnoses quicker, through affordable lab testing, and keep small and rural labs in-business.
• Co-sponsored and helped pass the Local Coverage Determination Clarification Act, which increases transparency requirements for the private contractors that develop coverage and payment policies within the Medicare program.
• Co-sponsored and helped pass the National Clinical Care Commission Act to improve federal clinical care programs for individuals with a complex metabolic or autoimmune disease such as diabetes.

Support seniors’ right to age with dignity.

San Diegan seniors should be able to age in a way that maintains their dignity and reflects the respect that they have earned over the course of a remarkable lifetime. Rep. Peters is committed to increasing comfort, ensuring financial stability, and providing choices for our community as they get older. In the past, he has:

• Co-sponsored and helped pass the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act to educate and train palliative care workers and establish a strategy for expanding research in palliative care. This bill passed the House of Representatives.

• Co-sponsored the Personalize Your Care Act which ensures seniors are able to make important personal decisions about their lives by requiring that Medicare cover end-of-life care and advance care planning consultations.
• Scott voted to protect the reverse mortgage program for seniors by requiring that the Department of Housing and Urban Development improve its fiscal safety and soundness.