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  • Congressional Corner An Open Letter To Tscl Petition Signers From

    In other words, next year's COLA could be calculated based at least in part on guesses. That could be disastrous for seniors. .Your cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) "overpays" you. Yes, that is an outrageous statement — especially since you haven't gotten a COLA boost for two years. Nevertheless, calling it "The Moment of Truth Project," that's what the President's Fiscal Commission is saying in making the case for the government to switch to a more slowly- growing "chained" Consumer Price Index (CPI). .The government has made it much easier to drop out of an older supplemental Medigap plan and join a new Medicare Advantage plan than the other way around. In fact, if you drop your older supplement, you may not be able to get it back again should you discover your new plan is not what you thought it would be. Failure to read the fine print can expose you to thousands of dollars in unexpected out-of-pocket costs should you require even just a few days of hospitalization or have a health condition that requires multiple visits to the doctor and lab services. … Continued

  • H R 3761 Seniors Deserve A Raise Act

    TSCL Wants to Know: Did You Wind Up Owing Uncle Sam? .On Tuesday evening, President Obama gave his fifth State of the Union Address before both chambers of Congress. To The Senior Citizens League's (TSCL's) surprise, the sixty-five minute speech included no mention of Social Security or Medicare, but the President did speak briefly about immigration reform and a new retirement savings plan called "myRA." .But a study of typical senior costs conducted by TSCL indicates that COLAs aren't doing a very good job of keeping up with rising prices now, primarily because the CPI isn't fully reflecting the portion of income that seniors must spend on rapidly rising healthcare costs. The study found that the Social Security benefits have lost 32 percent of their purchasing power since 2000. … Continued

Computed tomography or CT scans are diagnostic tests that are covered by Medicare when medically necessary and ordered by your healthcare provider. Medicare most typically covers the tests under Part B when you are an outpatient, or the tests would be covered by Part A if you receive the CT scan as an inpatient during a hospital stay. .What happens when Congress waits too long to address a Social Security funding crisis? Deeper benefit cuts, sudden tax increases, and glitches in the implementation of reforms that can lead to significant benefit inequities between people close to each other in age. Consider the case of the Social Security Notch that led to the most significant benefit inequities in the history of the program. The Notch affects seniors born from 1917 through 1926 and other seniors having similar work histories and earnings. .In recent years, inflation and COLAs have been virtually flat, averaging just 1.1% per year since 2010 — with no COLA at all in 2016 and just a 0.3% COLA in 201Slow growth in Social Security benefits, particularly when it continues over a period as long as 8 years, has a very significant impact on the overall amount of lifetime income that retirees can expect from Social Security. When retiree costs climb while benefits remain flat, people wind up having to dig more deeply into retirement savings (if they have any), spending more quickly than anticipated. Many people without other pensions or savings are forced into debt. About one in four low-income older Americans is dependent on programs that provide assistance with essentials like food and healthcare costs. .Background Information: Social Security beneficiaries received another record-low cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) of just 0.3% this year. But if the COLA were based on a more accurate measure of inflation for seniors like the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), they would be receiving an increase of 2.1% according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Question: Do you support legislation that would give older Americans a more fair and adequate Social Security COLA? .Conn received more than .5 million in attorney's fees from the Social Security Administration, making him the third highest paid disability lawyer in the country. Reviews of Dougherty's bank accounts found ,000 in unexplained deposits. Senator Tom Coburn (OK) told 60 Minutes, "If all these people are disabled…I want them all to get it and then we need to figure out how we're going to fund it. But my investigation tells me and my common sense tells me that we got a system that's being gamed pretty big now." .Legislators cannot effectively operate on their own without the input of those who elected them. After all, the Constitution guarantees "the right of the people to petition the government for redress of grievance," acknowledging that calling upon our elected representatives is a fundamental principle of our democracy. TSCL's grassroots petition campaign highlighted this freedom and successfully grabbed not just the ears, but the eyes and attention of Congress toward the concerns of millions of seniors nationwide. .Congress first approved the WEP in 1983 as part of a large package of Social Security reforms that included increasing the full retirement age. The stated intent was to remove an unintended advantage for workers who collect non-covered pensions, but also did some work in jobs covered by Social Security. .The Strategic National Stockpile will maintain the supplies while additional surge manufacturing is built up, a senior administration official said Thursday. The stockpile will include testing supplies that were not maintained in the past. .To help protect the buying power of benefits, TSCL supports legislation that would provide a modest boost in benefits, base COLAs on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E) and guarantee a COLA no lower than 3 percent. To learn more, visit .