I’m celebrating my 80th birthday this week (Oct. 9) and happy to report that both I and my wife are relatively healthy. We’ve had our medical scares, like so many seniors, but Medicare and Social Security keep us solvent.

As the Florida Senate race heats, I’m worried about what might happen to these two benefit programs. I certainly could not afford health insurance premiums at my age, so I’ve been researching both candidates’ policies. If Rick Scott is reelected and heads the Senate, I’m sure he’d lead the effort to shrink or kill Social Security and Medicare.

Scott sees them as government handouts and wrote a national plan in 2022 that could reduce or end them. But they’re not handouts. Over my long working years, nearly 8 percent of my income went into these benefits, and so did yours. We paid for them.

During his six Senate years, Scott voted against Medicare, the Affordable Care Act (health insurance), invitro fertilization, drug price negotiation, and as governor he denied Medicaid expansion for Florida’s poorest children. What’s so cynical is that Scott, the richest U.S. senator, was CEO of a hospital conglomerate that paid $1.7 billion for defrauding Medicare!

If Scott believes these programs should be reduced or eliminated, he should say so. Instead, his reelection campaign evades or actually denies his past votes. As a Florida senior who depends on Medicare, I don’t trust Rick Scott to keep mine secure. I’ll be voting for the Democrat this time around.

Gerald Stone

Boynton Beach, FL