(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . President Biden’s 2024 Secret Weapon: Senior Citizens [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-21 Thanks to his administration’s astute policymaking over the last three years, President Biden is quietly solidifying an unlikely secret weapon for the upcoming presidential election — the senior citizen voting bloc. That’s right — even though Republican candidates have won the senior vote in every election since the turn of the century, polling indicates that President Biden is currently on pace to reverse this trend. That’s encouraging because seniors turn out to polling booths at significantly higher rates than younger voters, and they comprise an outsized percentage of voters in key swing states like Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. But the president cannot afford to rest on his laurels. President Trump, who won this voting bloc in 2016 and 2020, is only slightly behind in the polls with this important demographic and will, without question, use every political opportunity to bring senior citizens back into his camp. This begs the question: what should President Biden do over the next four months to retain and expand his current lead? First, President Biden must highlight his commitment to Social Security and Medicare. He has submitted plans to help extend Medicare’s solvency and demanded that Congress ensure that the highest-income Americans pay their fair share into the Social Security Trust Fund. Seniors rely on Social Security, and no one can ever accuse the president of undermining these critical programs. But he should go further. As seniors struggle to deal with inflation, lifting the tax on Social Security benefits would be a popular move that Democrats and Republicans alike would appreciate. Second, President Biden should continue expanding home care access and affordability. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed new rules to ensure home healthcare workers receive more equitable Medicare payments. While change alone will guarantee that seniors will have more choices in the type of care that best suits their needs — eliminating the need for expensive in-patient services — more can be done Although seniors are more technologically astute than ever before, and virtual and telehealth care is growing in popularity, icensing rules often restrict doctors from providing care across state lines. Championing policies to streamline the licensing system would provide seniors with thousands of new doctors and treatments that are currently not available. Perhaps most importantly, President Biden must put an exclamation point on his efforts to lower prescription drug prices. His Inflation Reduction Act hard-capped insulin prices at $35 a month and next year, Medicare will limit out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses to $2,000 yearly. As important as these changes are, the president should double-down on his promise to hold Big Pharma accountable for price-gouging America's seniors — because it’s not only an important issue but also polls tremendously well. The drug industry is lobbying furiously to end Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), the companies that battle the big drug companies to secure lower prices on our behalf. They have been described as “unions for healthcare purchases” as they utilize their market power to secure bulk discounts and rebates for their clients. The Obama administration recognized PBMs' value for seniors, as they helped offset spending on Medicare Part D by 20 percent. But naturally, the drug companies are opposed to this, which is why several bills have been introduced in Congress to crimp PBMs ability to save seniors money. The president should lay down the law and issue veto threats to these bills. PBMs literally take money from Big Pharma’s pockets and save seniors billions of dollars. He needs to protect PBMs, not restrict them. Our seniors have the right to expect our elected leaders to protect their interests. They helped build and make our country what it is today, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude. President Biden has taken some important steps in this regard, and if he continues to look out for our seniors, whether by protecting Social Security and Medicare, expanding treatment options, or working to break Big Pharma’s hold on the prescription drug market, President Biden can harness the power of the senior vote as a pivotal force in the 2024 presidential election. Demetrius Terry is a New Jersey civil rights and Democratic political activist. He was a 2024 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major Award Honoree and a former Executive Director for the Greenville Health Access Coalition. 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