Political Quotes

“every year I hear from hundreds of constituents about the transformative impact Medicare has on their lives. For many of them, Medicare is literally the difference between life and death, between living with dignity or in abject poverty. It is as dramatic as that. Before we passed Medicare 51 years ago, slightly more than half of our seniors--in Hawaii we call our seniors kupuna--had health insurance. Only half. The insurance they had was very expensive and did not cover much. Millions could barely afford routine medical care, let alone treatment for a catastrophic illness. For the past 50 years, our seniors have approached retirement with the peace of mind of knowing that Medicare will be there for them. It is part of a commitment we have made to care for and honor our kupuna. To understand what life would be like for our seniors without Medicare, we don't need to look to the distant past before we had Medicare; we can learn from what happened, for example, 3 years ago to a family in Maui, to Phyllis and Tommy Duarte of Maui. Phyllis and Tommy contacted my office after they received a notice that the Social Security Administration had canceled Phyllis's Social Security payments. Like millions of kupuna across the country, Phyllis and Tommy live on a fixed income and depend on Social Security to pay their bills. After several months without receiving her Social Security check, Phyllis could no longer pay the premiums for her Medicare Part B plan.…”