KAREN SPILKA LAUNCHES STANDING UP FOR SENIORS TOUR

Karen Spilka made the first stop on her Standing Up for Seniors Tour at the Whitney Place Assisted Living facility in Natick, MA today. Karen will be visiting senior homes and centers across the Fifth District to hear directly from senior citizens and to share why she is running for Congress.

“I believe it is my job as an elected official to help people, not to enact policies that hurt people. And the proposals coming out of Washington right now would hurt far too many seniors who rely on Social Security to make ends meet and Medicare for the health care they need,” said Karen. "Defunding the Affordable Care Act would hurt seniors, causing prescription drug costs to increase and cutting off access to lifesaving preventative care. Replacing Medicare – a proven successful program – with a voucher system that puts seniors at the mercy of private insurance companies would hurt seniors and raise their health care costs. And we should be doing everything we can to ensure that Social Security keeps up with increases in the cost of living, not looking at ways to cut benefits.”

As a guardian of her sister who has Down Syndrome and Alzheimer’s, Karen knows the difficulties of navigating the social safety net at the state and federal level. So she is committed to providing top-notch constituency service, especially for seniors in the Fifth District, to help with things like tracking down a Social Security check, filing a disability claim, and accessing Medicare or the Veterans Administration.