Senator Gillibrand visits Penn Yan

PENN YAN--U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Special Committee on Aging, held a press conference at the Keuka Housing Council Community Resource Center last week to reveal her five-point Master Plan on Aging. The plan provides solutions to ensure all older Americans have the right to: affordable and healthy meals, affordable health care and prescription drugs, Social Security benefits and financial security, the ability to age in place and aging-friendly spaces and employment.
The population of the United States is aging rapidly and by 2034, the number of adults age 65 and older will be greater than the number of children under 18 for the first time ever.
Senator Gillibrand's Master Plan on Aging was shaped by a group of leaders she convened across New York to focus on the issues affecting older New Yorkers and has been received by 66 leading organizations of the working group.
"When you look at how a society cares for its older adults, it gives you insight into its values," said Gillibrand. "As a member of the Special Aging Committee in the Senate, I am dedicated to serving and investing in the well-being of our older loved ones. That's why I convened leaders across New York to form an Aging Working Group dedicated to finding real solutions to the many challenges older Americans face - and together, we created the Master Plan on Aging. The Master Plan on Aging has solutions to help older Americans navigate everything from housing and food insecurity to skyrocketing healthcare costs, insufficient retirement savings, and elder abuse. More than a third of the population in Yates County is 55 or older, and many New Yorkers across the state are facing similar challenges. I am so proud of the work we accomplished with President Biden to reduce drug prices and improve Medicare benefits, and I'm committed to continue working to ensure that every American has the opportunity to age with dignity and financial security."
Yates County Administrator Nonie Flynn added, "With the Master Plan on Aging, the conversation in Washington can truly focus on the needs of older adults in our community. I'm thankful for Senator Gillibrand's commitment to ensuring our older adults are living healthy and thriving lives, free from worry about meals or health care. Residents in Yates County and beyond will benefit from investments in their wellbeing and to allow for aging in place."
Details of the plan include:
Ensuring the Right to Affordable and Healthy Meals
• Senator Gillibrand is fighting to increase funding for the Older Americans Act, a major federal vehicle for the delivery of social and nutrition services for more than 11 million older Americans and their caregivers. Previously, Senator Gillibrand led a bipartisan push with Senator Collins (ME) that helped secure over $1.4 billion in funding for the OAA with $750 million specifically designated for nutrition services in the American Rescue Plan Act.
• Senator Gillibrand is also pushing to provide a pathway for nutritious meals, meal deliveries, and social connection for the 5.2 million older adults in the United States, including an estimated 7.6 percent of older adults in New York, who experienced food insecurity in 2020. Gillibrand partnered with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to call for $1.93 billion in FY23 funding for the OAA nutritional programs.
Guaranteeing the Right to Affordable Health Care and Prescription Drugs
• The Lower Drug Costs for Families Act, which would impose a penalty payment for drug price increases faster than the rate of inflation to units sold in the commercial market.
• The Prescription Drug Price Relief Act, which would peg the price of prescription drugs in the United States to the median price in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan.
-The Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act, which would allow patients, pharmacists and wholesalers to import safe, affordable medicine from Canada and other major countries.
Protecting Social Security and Financial Security
• The Social Security Expansion Act, which would extend the solvency of Social Security for 75 years without raising taxes at all on over 93 percent of American households. It would also expand SS benefits across the board by an average of $2,400 a year, increase the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) and would require millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share into social security.
• The Social Security Fairness Act, which would fully repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) to help protect Social Security survivors' benefits for spouses, widows, and widowers who also receive government pensions of their own. The bipartisan bill also eliminates the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which in some instances reduces Social Security benefits for individuals who also receive a pension or disability benefit from an employer that did not withhold Social Security taxes.
Safeguarding the Right to Age in Place
• The Better Care Better Jobs Act, which would build on the $12.7 billion short-term Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) funding that passed as part of the American Rescue Plan. It would enhance Medicaid funding for HCBS and strengthen the HCBS workforce.
• The Domestic Worker Bill of Rights Act, Senator Gillibrand's bill which would shore establish overdue rights for domestic workers, including home health aides, at the national level. It would:
-Fill in key gaps in employment protections.
-Build on state innovations to create workplace protections specific to domestic work.
-Provide tailored protections for the most vulnerable and trafficked workers.
-Ensure that federal agencies competently support and protect domestic workers.
-Commission research to better protect and stabilize this workforce.
-Invest in the stability and expansion of this workforce.
-Support innovative new worker education and empowerment models.
-Address employers' needs.
Investing in Aging Friendly Spaces and Employment
• More than 30 percent of Americans over age 65 and over 50 percent of those over age 75 have a disability. In addition, workers over the age of 55 represent a huge and essential segment of the American economy; by 2030, one in four U.S. workers will be 55 or older. Senator Gillibrand is fighting to protect aging friendly spaces and combat age discrimination in the workplace.