Lake County News Sun - Schneider's Roundtable Discussion Focuses on Medicare, Social Security

Trading accusations about how they would handle Medicare and Social Security, Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Deerfield, and his opponent in the Nov. 4 election, former Rep. Robert Dold, R-Kenilworth, tried to make each other look like a senior citizen's worst nightmare.

Schneider told five area residents at a roundtable on Social Security and Medicare at Waukegan's Park Place Senior Center Friday, Sept. 12, Dold wanted to alter benefits of both social programs.

"My opponent voted twice for the Ryan budget which turns Medicare into a voucher system and I voted against it twice," Schneider said. "He said he would raise the minimum age to get Social Security and I oppose that."

Dold was not at the meeting but James Slepian, his campaign manager, while not denying Schneider's statements, said the Congressman supported provisions of the Affordable Care Act which could cost area Medicare recipients more than $1,350 next year.

"Brad Schneider promised seniors in 2012 that he wouldn't cut Medicare by "one penny,' then turned around and gutted Medicare Advantage by $150 billion, hitting 10th (Congressional) District seniors with an average $1,350 benefit cut starting next year," Slepian said.

When asked about Slepian's statement, Schneider campaign spokesperson Staci McCabe said the Congressman is opposed to any cuts to Medicare Advantage and has urged the Medicare agency in writing to maintain the program at current levels in 2015.

"The Washington Post reported that not only did these cuts never happen, there was a Medicare Advantage increase this year," McCabe said. "This is yet another desperate attempt by Dold to distract from his reliable Republican record of voting not once but twice to end the Medicare guarantee."

Both Dold and Schneider want cuts to Medicare Advantage to go away. Schneider does not want to take away the Medicare guarantee but Dold wants to make changes to the health care program for seniors to keep it solvent for future generations.

"He believes that Washington must advance bipartisan legislation to pull Medicare back from the brink of insolvency by offering more choice and flexibility in the program for future generations, while making no changes for those currently at or near retirement," Slepian said.

Schneider told the people at the roundtable he believes Social Security and Medicare are two examples of how Americans should judge their society. He considers the programs a contract than cannot be broken.

"Today 47 million Americans are receiving Medicare benefits," Schneider said. "One in three citizens on Social Security [uses] it to keep them out of poverty." He also worries about people a decade or two away from receiving benefits. "One in five people in my generation [has] little or no savings."

"A measure of our society is how we take care of the most vulnerable, the old, the young and the infirm," Len Solof of Deerfield added.

Not only does Schneider see Social Security and Medicare as benefits to people using the programs and those approaching eligibility, but it is part of the example he believes the country should set for younger generations.

"As people live into their 80s and 90s, they count on Social Security and Medicare to let them remain in our community in a way they can do it with dignity which our kids can see is helpful."

Not everyone at the event who is eligible for Social Security wants to be taking advantage of it just yet. Jan Derdiger of Deerfield was working for a company as its lawyer when the business closed its local office and asked him to retire. He is 65.

"I'm looking for work [as an] in house [counsel]," Derdiger said. If the age were raised, he thinks a job program would be in order. "Not everyone wants to hire someone who is 65."

Though Nanci Blatt of Lincolnshire has saved through the years, she relies on Social Security and Medicare in a big way. She recently spent five days in the hospital and the cost of the stay was $20,000.

"I don't know many people could afford to pay that," she said. "I'm 76. I've been on Social Security since I was 65. It's my only income. I have [savings] put away."

Another attendee, Dr. Chuck Drueck, 69, of Glenview, likes Medicare the way it is, both as a physician and a recipient of care. He has been practicing medicine since the program began and believes the system is designed to control costs.

"It provides access to doctors, it's not an HMO," Drueck said. "I bill and Medicare tells me what I will be paid. That is how Medicare determines the costs and how much a physician will be paid."

Douglas Raul Williams of Hainesville is not using either Social Security or Medicare at 53 but it impacts his life as well as his mother's caregiver. She is on dialysis.

"It costs $2,000 a session, that's $72,000 a year," Williams said. "If there were no cap no insurance company would cover that," he added expressing a fear neither he nor his mother have because of Medicare.

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