As many of you know, protecting our seniors is one of my top priorities. I have expressed my concerns about strengthening Medicare and taking care of our seniors many times in this column. 

Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Medicare Premium Fairness Act which would prohibit Medicare premiums from rising sharply for millions of our seniors. I was very proud to vote to block these increases to the Medicare Part B premiums.

Many of our seniors would have been forced to shoulder an unfair share of the burden as federal law complexities were going to raise the costs of the Medicare Part B premiums even though there was going to be no Social Security cost of living increase this year.

Our seniors, many of whom live on fixed incomes from their Social Security checks, should not be forced to absorb undue hardships for the Medicare Part B premiums.

Under the current laws, most Medicare Part B premiums, which cover outpatient and physician care, are deducted out of Social Security checks, and cannot increase more than the cost of living adjustment for Social Security. However, this only applies to three-fourths of Medicare enrollees. Known as a “hold harmless” provision, this part of the federal law protects only 73 percent of seniors from premium increases if there is no increase in Social Security benefits.

The other millions of enrollees would have seen their premiums increase every month. More than 18 percent of these enrollees are low-income seniors who also qualify for Medicaid forcing already cash-strapped states to bear some of the premium increases.

The hikes would have directly affected 4 million new enrollees, recent retirees and those whose premiums are not deducted from their Social Security checks.

These increases would have adversely affected their ability to support themselves, pay for their medications and simply buy the groceries they need to survive.  In these troubling economic times, we need to do everything we can to protect our seniors and our disabled citizens from unnecessary economic hardships.

The Medicare Premium Fairness Act freezes the premiums at their current level, and protects seniors through 2010. It is also deficit neutral, being paid for through the Medicare Improvement Fund established a few years ago to make improvements to Medicare Part A and B benefits.

By paying for this freeze on premium increases with funds already established, Congress was able to protect our seniors while meeting the fiscal responsibility of the Pay-As-You-Go bill we passed earlier this summer.

I was proud to vote for the Medicare Premium Fairness Act to protect our seniors from those premium increases and will continue to fight any legislation which cuts Medicare benefits.

Larry Kissell is the Congressman from the Eighth District.