I’m a Medicare senior who is worried about my future healthcare if Rick Scott is reelected. I know that sounds partisan, but here’s how I see it: Scott will lead the Senate in reducing the large benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Florida has 4.5 million seniors (one out of five residents), so you’d think improving our retirement years would be a senator’s reelection priority. Instead, Scott always votes to end or reduce seniors’ benefits. Given the chance, he really would shrink Social Security and Medicare.

Throughout my working years, about 7% of my income went into funding these programs. They aren’t handouts. I paid for them, and so did you. If you depend on Social Security and Medicare, be wary of Sen. Scott.

During his six years in office, he’s voted against Medicare, the Affordable Care Act (health insurance), in vitro fertilization, and prevented Medicaid expansion for Florida’s poorest children when he was governor. They’re all health care programs people depend on. And what’s so hypocritical is that Scott, the richest U.S. senator, made his fortune heading a major hospital conglomerate, one that forfeited a $1.7 billion penalty for defrauding Medicare!

If Scott believes these programs should be reduced or eliminated, he should say so. Instead, his reelection campaign evades his past votes or, like his IVF vote last week, actually claims he supported it. So when Scott says he’ll save Medicare, I’ve got to reach for my wallet.

Gerald Stone
Boynton Beach, FL