God calls us to look after our most vulnerable. In my work as Pastor of God’s Divine Tabernacle of Prayer, these are often seniors struggling to access and afford their medical care. Lawmakers have the power to remove that burden from them by supporting the Medicare Advantage program.
Medicare Advantage helps to take the struggle out of good health for seniors. It offers medical treatments that meet their specific circumstances and urges them to care for their future health with preventative programs. Benefits are easy to understand, easy to access, and affordable. It’s no wonder many of my congregants depend on and appreciate Medicare Advantage.
But those same congregants are worried their benefits will soon disappear. Funding cuts and benefit reductions loom, always. Imagine being a senior trying to care for your health and worrying the treatments and medications you need won’t be covered or cost an arm and a leg when you’re already on a fixed income.
Imagine being a senior who has worked your whole life and having to go to your children for money to cover your healthcare costs. Medicare Advantage helps make sure that won’t happen.
For the health, wellness, and dignity of our seniors, I implore lawmakers to safeguard the Medicare Advantage program by insisting on full funding and stable benefits.
Elder Shirley Barkley is Pastor of God’s Divine Tabernacle of Prayer in Clinton Hill
