Murphy Makes a Stop in Simsbury to Discuss Medicare and Social Security

About 60 people showed up at Eno Memorial Hall in Simsbury Wednesday to hear U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy talk about Medicare and Social Security issues.

Murphy — a Democrat representing the Fifth Congressional District who is running for the U.S. senate — is speaking on these topics at various locations throughout his district. On this stop, he was with Connecticut's Healthcare Advocate Victoria Veltri.

Murphy didn’t wait too long to dive into the issues.

“We do have a looming crisis in both federal Social Security and Medicare programs,” he told those in attendance.

Fixing that is where there are disagreements.

His position is that U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget would drastically change Medicare and Social Security systems, but not for the good.

The plan that Ryan has proposed has been passed the House of Representatives and is before the Senate. Murphy did not think it would pass the Senate and said if it did he thought President Barack Obama would veto it.

The way Murphy explained it, the Ryan program would end Medicare. The administration of the health care benefit program would end and people would be given a voucher to buy private health insurance.

The problem, said Murphy, is that the vouchers are underfunded. Some estimates have said the plan would double and eventually triple the out-of-pocket expenses of seniors in about 20 years.

If this program is passed, vouchers would start in 10 years and would affect people 55 and older. Murphy noted that much of what he was discussing would not affect the people in attendance.

The other issue is losing control. Murphy said the government run program has 3 percent administrative cost and the rest — 97 percent — goes to care. If this program goes through people would be “at the mercy of private insurance industry.”

“The social security plan is not much different,” Murphy said.

Ryan’s idea is to privatize the program, in essence turning your money over to Wall Street and the market, said Murphy.

He also mentioned that Medicaid would become a block grant under the planned changes. This means states would get a lump sum and may add its own money to that or not. He said Medicaid is used mostly for low-income seniors and nursing home care. The proposed changes would affect those 65 and older. The way it works now is once a family’s money is exhausted Medicaid steps in.

“There simply wouldn’t be money to take care of seniors in nursing homes,” he said.

Murphy said one way to save the Medicare program is to change the health care delivery system to increase efficiency and eliminate abuse and waste.

He said with Social Security it used to be that 90 percent of income was taxed and went into the system. Today that number is 85 percent. If it was restored to 90 percent the system would be solvent.

Questions from those in attendance ranged from a question about death panels (Murphy described it as “absolute fiction”), to prescription drug access from other countries (he is seeking to make that possible with Canada).

“I think it was a good speech he gave,” said Robert Bocompani of Farmington who was there with his wife Joyce.

They heard about the event from a robo call they received.

Bocompani was surprised to learn that the Ryan plan had passed the House and was discouraged that it has traction.

“It doesn't seem like the United States anymore,” he said, referring to the idea that the plan would mean many people without insurance.