Where Do The Presidential Candidates Stand on
Long-Term Care, Social Security?
Summary of major party candidates' positions on
issues that affect seniors and their families
By ElderLawAnswers.com
Aug.
25, 2008 - With the elderly population growing by leaps and bounds,
families are struggling with long-term care costs and worrying about
Social Security. So what are the presidential candidate's plans to
address these issues? Below is a summary of the main party candidate's
positions on some of the issues that affect seniors and their families.
Older Boomers most likely to support McCain after
favoring Obama in April; Pew Research finds McCain's Negatives Mostly
Political, Obama's More Personal
Sen. Obama has a section on his Web site devoted to
seniors and Social Security. With regard to long-term care, Sen. Obama's
Web site states that he "will work to give seniors choices about their
care, consistent with their needs, and not biased towards institutional
care.
He will work to reform the financing of long term
care to protect seniors and families. He will work to improve the
quality of elder care, including by training more nurses and health care
workers." His Web site also states that he will expand eligibility for
Medicaid and ensure it continues to serve its critical safety net
function.
In addition, Sen. Obama told the AARP he plans to
propose tax code changes that would benefit family caregivers who often
"are making substantial contributions without a lot of help." He has
also announced that he will eliminate all income taxes on seniors making
less than $50,000 per year.
Other proposals include allowing allow the federal
government to negotiate for lower drug prices for the Medicare program,
just as it does to lower prices for our veterans. Sen. Obama also
supports allowing seniors to import safe prescription drugs from
overseas and preventing pharmaceutical companies from blocking cheap and
safe generic drugs from the market.
With regard to Social Security, Sen. Obama has
called for a Social Security payroll tax on incomes above $250,000 a
year to begin in 2019. Currently the tax is levied only on the first
$102,000 of each worker's income. He would not impose the tax on incomes
between $102,000 and $250,000.
For more on Sen. Obama's proposals for seniors,
click here.
Sen. John McCain
On Sen. McCain's Web site, he states there is a
need to develop a strategy for meeting growing long-term care needs. His
Web site mentions state-based experiments such as Cash and Counseling or
The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) that "are
pioneering approaches for delivering care to people in a home setting."
Sen. McCain's Web site states that he wants to
"reform the payment systems in Medicaid and Medicare to compensate
providers for diagnosis, prevention and care coordination. Medicaid and
Medicare should not pay for preventable medical errors or
mismanagement."
To that end, Sen. McCain has proposed a major
overhaul of Medicare's payment system to pay health care providers by
how successfully they treat their patients instead of by each individual
service they perform. He has also suggested making wealthier Medicare
beneficiaries pay more for their benefits. Specifically he has proposed
higher Medicare Part D premiums for couples making more than $160,000 a
year.
With regard to caregivers, Sen. McCain told the
AARP that he believes that decisions about the care of older family
members should remain within each family, and "any way we can help
caregivers [offset costs through tax credits or other financial
incentives] we should. But it needs to be part of an overall policy
regarding health care."
Sen. McCain states that he has said he would
consider "almost anything" to help Social Security except higher payroll
taxes.
According to his Web site, Sen. McCain "supports
supplementing the current Social Security system with personal
accounts."
For more on Sen. McCain's proposals on health care,
click here.
>> For the latest updates to this information by
ElderLawAnswers.com,
click here.
>> For the ElderLawAnswers.com home page,
click here.
Keep up with the latest news for senior citizens, baby
boomers
