Coronavirus and Seniors Petition

Petition to the Leadership of the Congress of the United States:

Americans 60 years of age and older are among the most vulnerable to the ravages of COVID-19.  Their health and income security is significantly aggravated by the crisis.

Social Security is the major source of income for most of America’s seniors with 46% of retirees depending on Social Security for 90% or more of their income and an average monthly benefit of just $1,1509.

Older Americans spend 20% to 40% of their income on health care.

Congress must enact additional measures to defend seniors’ financial and health security, including:

• Enact the improvements in the Emergency Social Security Benefits Act, including an increase in widows’ and widowers’ benefits for lower-and-middle-income beneficiaries, and raising the threshold for the minimum benefit to 125% of the federal poverty line; and

• Increase by $250 the monthly benefit for all Social Security, Veterans, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries through the end of 2021; and

• Create a new Medicaid grant for states to boost their home and community-based long-term care services; and

• Appropriate an additional $400 million for the Social Security Administration’s operating budget to help the agency cope with the increase in coronavirus-related claims, including expected survivors’ benefit applications, and

• Extend the 90-day prescription refill rule applied to Medicare in the CARES Act to all patients.

I petition Congress to pass a 4th economic stimulus package that would do more to help seniors survive the COVID-19 pandemic, both physically and financially.