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The source of this article is the Palm Beach Post: http://tinyurl.com/7xjks Elderly issues divide Castor, Martinez in Florida U.S. Senate Race By Larry Lipman Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Monday, October 18, 2004 TAMPA — One out of five Floridians is over 65. Older residents also vote in greater proportion than any other age group. Small wonder, then, that U.S. Senate candidates Betty Castor and Mel Martinez can frequently be found visiting senior centers and residential complexes. That's where the votes are. Castor, 63, the Democratic nominee, and Martinez, 57, the Republican nominee, both say they have a strong sense of obligation to the elderly and vow to honor the government's promises to them. "This is a country that committed to helping its seniors. It's a country that said, 'There will be a safety net for your good, hard work,' and I think that's an obligation we have to our seniors, and I feel very strongly about that," Castor said during an interview here. In a separate interview, Martinez said, "Government has a very large and continuing responsibility for issues related to the elderly, and I don't think the government can abdicate that role." Yet there are differences in how each candidate would meet those commitments in the areas of Medicare, Social Security, access to prescription drugs and other issues for seniors. Prescription prices: New war on drugs Martinez said he would have voted for last year's Medicare prescription drug law, as did most congressional Republicans. Castor said she would have voted against it, as did most congressional Democrats. "I think it's important to our seniors to make a commitment that we are going to help them with prescription drugs, Surely it's expensive," Martinez said of the law, "and surely it's imperfect, but I think it's a beginning step on something that is long overdue." Castor said the bill should have been rejected for being too costly — estimates range from $400 billion to about $560 billion over 10 years — for giving too much benefit to drug companies and not enough to the elderly, and for prohibiting the government from negotiating directly with drug manufacturers for discount bulk prices. "All they had to do was look at the program that already exists within the VA," she said, referring to the Department of Veterans Affairs practice of negotiating drug prices that are substantially less than retail. Martinez also said Congress should have allowed direct negotiations on drug prices — as long as it would not result in "price fixing" by the government. Both Castor and Martinez support allowing prescription drugs to be imported from Canada, although with a slight difference. Castor said she would support the reimportation of any drug manufactured in the United States and then sold through a Canadian pharmacy. Martinez said he would support the sale of any drug sold in Canada — regardless of the country of origin — so long as it is considered safe. Medicare, Social Security, stem cells Neither candidate would support raising the eligibility age for Medicare, a proposal that has been considered repeatedly by the Senate as a way to avoid a financial crisis in the program. Castor said she would support allowing people to buy into Medicare in their early 60s if they do not have employer-sponsored health care. Martinez said he does not know enough about the proposal to have formed an opinion. Both candidates said they would protect Social Security benefits for the elderly, but they differed over whether to allow young workers to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into individual investment accounts. President Bush has indicated that, if reelected, he will make individual investment accounts a top priority. Martinez said he would support such accounts for young workers; Castor said she opposes them. "For very young workers, like my son-in-law and daughter who are just entering the workforce, I think they should be allowed to put some of their money into a private savings account that would earn a larger return than what the government gets now on the Social Security Trust Fund, and that will help them to have a much healthier nest egg for their retirement years," Martinez said. Castor said she is "very opposed" to carving individual accounts out of Social Security because "it takes so much of the payroll taxes out of the system.... When you start taking money out of the system, there is not enough money to continue paying benefits." Castor notes that the "transitional costs" of moving from the current system to one with limited individual investment accounts have been estimated as high as $2 trillion. Noting that Florida has 3.3 million Social Security beneficiaries — including 2.2 million who receive retirement benefits — Castor said, "They worked hard all their lives, they invested in this system and we shouldn't do anything to put those accounts at risk." Martinez said he also doesn't want to risk benefits for current beneficiaries. "People should get what they are expecting to get," he said. Martinez acknowledged the high cost of moving from one system to another, but said he believes a solution can be found to pay for it. Martinez and Castor differ sharply over stem-cell research, which some advocates for seniors claim holds great promise in finding cures for such diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's that afflict the elderly. Martinez has repeatedly said he supports Bush's position on stem-cell research, which allows work to be done on existing stem-cell lines and on adult stem cells, but not on new embryonic stem-cell lines. "I would draw the line at wherever the research would begin the destruction of human life," Martinez said during a Republican primary debate in August. Castor strongly supports stem-cell research. During a September tour of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, she said stem-cell research "provides hope to Florida families suffering from deadly and disabling diseases such as spinal cord injury, Alzheimer's and cancer." Castor said she would support a bipartisan bill pending in the Senate to overturn Bush's order and allow federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. Each touts track record Both candidates point to their records as indications of their strong support for the elderly. Martinez notes that while he was Orange County manager he created an interim commission on aging to begin planning for how the county would address the needs of its growing elderly population. That commission has since become a permanent fixture of Orange County government. Martinez also promises that, if elected, he would appoint a staff liaison to deal specifically with elderly issues. Castor points to legislation she sponsored while serving in the state Senate to prohibit age discrimination in employment, to allow senior citizens to take free college courses, to increase employer contributions for members of the Florida Retirement System and to provide more accountability in the management of residents' trust funds by nursing homes and adult congregate-living facilities. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn