Thank you Chairman Stark, Ranking Member Camp and Subcommittee Members.

My name is Emelia Santiago Herrera and I am from Orlando, Florida. I am an 81 year-old mother to 8 children, a grandmother to 54 children and a great-grandmother to 18 children!

I’ve had 5 heart attacks and 3 strokes, so I have health problems and need assistance. I am a low-income Medicare beneficiary and receive low-income benefits. I am enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan with prescription drug coverage and receive the full Part D low-income subsidy.

I received information about Evercare and other Medicare Advantage plans in my “Medicare & You” Handbook. My friend told me to “Go with Evercare, they treat you with dignity and respect!” I called to see about enrolling in a plan and an Evercare representative came to my house to discuss my different options and go over everything with me. I then decided to listen to my friend’s advice and enroll in an Evercare plan. I have not regretted it, I love Evercare and appreciate all the benefits I receive and depend on.

My Evercare Plan provides me with disease management, preventative care and nutritional assistance. Evercare is available to take me to the doctor 10 times a year, they give me diabetic shoes that would normally cost $50 per inch, and a foot doctor comes to my house to clip my toe nails to avoid complications with diabetes. Evercare goes grocery shopping for me, and to help manage my diabetes, I have 14 meals delivered to my house every month. Someone from Evercare even comes to my house to clean twice a week!

To top it all off, someone from Evercare comes and checks on me every three months to make sure I am being treated well by the Evercare representatives.

Since I am low-income, all of the services I receive are just a blessing. I used to pay a $9 co-pay for my prescription drugs but now I don’t pay anything at all because of the extra help I receive. Even though I am a low-income senior, they treat me like a queen and I don’t know what I would do without them and all the benefits of this plan! It is for all of these reasons: disease management, preventative care, nutritional assistance and especially the no co-pay, I don’t have to live in an assisted living home.