CHAT WRAP: Warren Talks Jobs, Heritage, Health Care, Education with Patch …

U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren joined us for a live chat with Patch readers July 13. Many of the questions submitted were about her position on healthcare, job creation and the affordability of higher education.

Check out the following short recap, or browse through the full QA transcript. 

On her heritage

Patch: The first question came from a reader in Lynnfield. “Although there is a relatively small number of Mass. voters of Native American descent, do you feel you have addressed their concerns about your own statements involving your heritage?”

Elizabeth Warren: Growing up, my mother and grandparents often talked about our family’s Native American heritage. As a kid, I never asked them for documentation–what kid would?

But growing up, I knew that my parents had been very much in love, but that my father’s family said they couldn’t get married because my mother was part Cherokee and part Delaware. So they eloped. We grew up with this all our lives. 

I never asked for–and never got–any benefit in school or in jobs. The people who hired me have said that they didn’t even know about it when they recruited me–and it played no role in my hiring. 

So there it is. 

On health care

From Dennis Naughton: “I am a senior citizen and am very concerned about the future of Medicare. Senator Brown has made it clear that he supports the Republican ideas that would tend to privatize the system. I oppose that idea, especially given the collapse of the economy and what it did to 401k’s. What is your position on the future of Medicare.”

Elizabeth Warren: I disagree with Republicans who want to privatize Medicare. Cutting Medicare won’t keep people from having heart attacks or developing diabetes. In other words, people will still get sick and they will still need care. Pushing the costs of their care on families or emergency rooms doesn’t change the basic calculation, and it certainly won’t cut overall health care costs. 

The real issue is the rising cost of health care that is squeezing families. We need to work on cutting health care costs. The Affordable Care Act begins the process, but we need to

You can read the rest of this article at: http://stoughton.patch.com/articles/warren-cut-healthcare-costs-focus-on-jobs-education-live-chat-recap-56578d51