It’s time to expand Social Security and Medicare

My grandfather died suddenly when my father was young. My grandmother, Sarah Barney, became a single mother overnight. A secretary, she raised three boys, and sent each one to college. She made it possible for her sons to live the American Dream.

I have joyous memories of family gatherings at my grandmother's house after she retired from her job at Bell Labs. She lived modestly but had everything she needed. Her home was a place of warmth and love, full of books and board games and the scents of savory stews and home-baked sugar cookies.

I admire my grandmother for the parent she was. I am grateful that she lived at a time when America was committed, private and public sector, to ensuring dignity in retirement for those who worked hard and put their children first. I often wonder what Sarah Barney's sacrifices for her children would have meant for her golden years had she worked in today's economy, without a meaningful pension to look forward to, struggling paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet after years without a raise.

Protecting Social Security and Medicare is more important today than ever, but it is not enough. Fewer and fewer workers can depend on pensions from their employers in retirement. More than a third of seniors rely on Social Security for almost all their income. The average couple nearing retirement has only two years of retirement income saved, and almost half of working-age households have no retirement savings whatsoever. Meanwhile, health care and prescription drug costs continue to rise.

As Delaware's representative in Congress, I will not only fight to protect Social Security and Medicare; I will work to expand and strengthen them. To that end, this week I am releasing a detailed and comprehensive plan for ensuring we keep this country's historic promise to hardworking Americans of dignity in retirement.

Today, the average retired worker receives just $16,140 a year from Social Security, barely above the federal poverty line. In light of the collapse of the other traditional sources of retirement security, Congress should pass Social Security B, a plan to add $11,669 to the basic Social Security benefit. Congress should also adopt a cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security based on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), which reflects the true rate of rise in the cost of living for seniors today.

What individuals receive from Social Security in retirement is determined by their lifetime earnings. Benefits are therefore lower for those who spend time raising children or caring for sick family members during their working years. Since 66 percent of unpaid caregivers are women, this policy disproportionately affects women, who lose an average of $324,000 in wages and retirement benefits over their lifetime. This is fundamentally unfair and, from the standpoint of a society that benefits immeasurably from unpaid caregiver care, shortsighted. It is long past time that Congress establishes a Social Security Caregiver Credit.

Today a billionaire in New York contributes the same to Social Security as a dentist in Wilmington because current law shields the majority of the billionaire's income from the requirement that workers pay a portion of each paycheck into Social Security. The solvency of the Social Security trust fund can be extended through 2070 by repealing this exemption – the payroll tax cap – and requiring billionaires to pay their fair share.

I am proud that, as an advisor to Sen. Tom Carper, I worked on the largest expansion of Medicare in its history, the addition of prescription drug coverage. This step was vital to meet the modern health care needs of today's seniors, 90 percent of whom take at least one medication per week. Additional steps are needed, though.

Under current law, Medicare's prescription drug coverage includes a "donut hole." Once seniors reach this gap in coverage, they are forced to pay the full costs of their medications out of pocket. It makes no sense for seniors to lose coverage just as their expenses are mounting and while they are continuing to pay premiums. Congress should act to immediately close this coverage gap, rather than waiting until 2020 to do so.

Congress should also act swiftly to require Medicare to negotiate with the drug companies for the best possible prices. Besides stretching the budgets of seniors on fixed incomes, higher-than-necessary drug prices translate into hundreds of billions of dollars in additional Medicare costs to the taxpayers. Congress owes it to our seniors and to the taxpayers to negotiate a better deal.

Social Security was established in response to the widespread economic insecurity of the Great Depression. The economic security of the middle class is challenged today in ways Americans have not experienced since the Great Depression. It is time once again to act boldly to preserve the promise of retirement security in America.

Sean Barney is a former advisor to Senator Tom Carper and Governor Jack Markell and a Marine and Iraq War veteran. He is a Democratic candidate for Delaware's lone congressional seat.