We must protect and expand the benefits of Social Security and Medicare.
Will protect and expand Social Security and Medicare benefits.
Occurrences
Evidence
Her office said she hosted a virtual roundtable on the newly signed Social Security Fairness Act, which she co-sponsored and which repealed WEP and GPO, increasing Social Security benefits for over 15,800 New Mexicans. The release also says she co-sponsored Social Security 2100, which would increase benefits across the board, improve COLA, and boost lower-income retirees.
The current seniors issue page says she is working hard to lower health care costs and protect Social Security, and that she strongly advocates Social Security 2100, which would increase benefits across the board, improve the cost-of-living adjustment, and end the five-month disability waiting period.
The current health issue page says she strongly supports fully funding and strengthening Medicare, and that she helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices and caps out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000.
Assessments
Leger Fernandez materially advanced parts of this promise while in office, but not the full broad outcome. She co-sponsored the Social Security Fairness Act, which became law and increased Social Security benefits by repealing WEP and GPO, and she supported broader Social Security expansion proposals that have not passed. On Medicare, she helped pass Inflation Reduction Act provisions that let Medicare negotiate some drug prices and cap out-of-pocket prescription costs, which strengthened beneficiary protections. Those are concrete protections and expansions, but they do not amount to a full protection-and-expansion of Social Security and Medicare benefits overall.