Issue Position: Taking Care of Our Seniors

Issue Position

Social Security Solvency

We can improve the solvency of Social Security by getting our economy growing and by getting people back to work. There are more than 15 million people out of work and not paying into Social Security. By adding jobs and growing our economy, millions more people will be paying into the system. This is the best way to ensure that the revenue is available to fund Social Security.

Deficit Reduction and Social Security

Job creation must be job number one. With a common sense approach that fosters free enterprise and empowers people, we can get our economy back on track and Americans back to work. That means creating a favorable business climate like we have in North Dakota, with more legal, tax and regulatory certainty, so that businesses can invest and hire people. If you get people back to work and get our economy going, we can grow the revenue base we need to fund our priorities like Social Security.
At the same time, we have to hold the line on spending, find savings within our federal budget, and crack down on fraud and abuse in our entitlement programs.

Medicare Fraud

The AARP has cited figures that estimate Medicare fraud and abuse costs taxpayers between $60 billion and $90 billion a year. We need to eliminate fraud and abuse in Medicare so that we can increase the solvency of the program and ensure that it is there to provide top quality health care for our seniors.

Physician Access for Medicare Beneficiaries

We must ensure adequate doctor reimbursement under Medicare so that seniors have access to quality physician care. We should reform the system to provide more fee for outcome reimbursement rather than simply providing fee for service. Also, the Medicare reimbursement system still punishes good performers and rewards poor performers. For example, in North Dakota we have one of the lowest Medicare reimbursement rates in the nation. Yet, we have some of the lowest health care costs and best outcomes. Compare that to Louisiana which gets 60 percent higher reimbursement rates, even though they are a very high cost state with poor outcomes. The system should encourage physicians to maintain open access to Medicare patients and incentivize them to provide the best quality care at the best price for our seniors.

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