Congressman Patrick J. Murphy

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Congressman Murphy requested that House leadership take action to ensure seniors have continued access to the doctors they know and trust by preventing a pending 21.5% Medicare payment cut for physicians in 2010.
In 2008, the Congressman was a proud supporter of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, which eliminated a pending 10% cut in scheduled payments.
These efforts are supported by more than 150 organizations, including the American Medical Association, AARP, Leadership Council of Aging Organizations, National Council on Aging, American Legion, National Rural Health Association, Mental Health America, and National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

Congressman Murphy is a longtime advocate of the ethical use of embryonic stem cell research and the promise it holds for the more than 100 million Americans who suffer from cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries and other debilitating diseases.
This bill would allow for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. While President Obama signed an executive order in January 2009 allowing for this research, Congressman Murphy believes it is important to codify the President’s actions and ensure that all research adheres to strict ethical standards.

Congressman Murphy supported H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which provided Social Security seniors an additional $250 Social Security payment to help them through the financial downturn.
The ARRA also included $100 million in funding for senior nutrition services, such as home-delivered meals and those served in senior centers and nursing homes.

Congressman Murphy believes that workers who dedicated their lives to public service should not lose the retirement benefits that they or their spouses earned throughout their careers.
This bill would repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), both of which unfairly reduce or eliminate benefits that public employees or their surviving spouses have earned and were expecting to receive in retirement.

Congressman Murphy believes seniors and disabled individuals deserve the right to choose to receive home- or community-based services, or to retain the right to receive services in an institutional setting.
This bill provides seniors with real choices by allowing individuals who are eligible for services in other care facilities the opportunity to choose instead to stay in their homes and receive assistance with daily living activities and health-related functions.

This bill protects seniors from abuse by establishing elder abuse research and prosecution programs to aid victims, provide abuse prevention and protections training to prosecutors and law enforcement officials, and establish emergency crisis response teams to combat this horrible crime.

This bill protects seniors’ legal rights by providing that a pre-dispute arbitration agreement between a long-term care facility and a resident shall not be valid. It ensures that nursing home corporations cannot hide clauses in their contract forcing seniors into unfair, onesided mandatory binding arbitration - on the corporation’s terms - in the case of a lawsuit.
Congressman Murphy believes that if a resident or an individual actuing on their behalf feels a nursing home has been negligent, that individual should have the right to trial by jury, with arbitration as a voluntary option.

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