News

  • House Passes Bill To Stop Cuts In Medicare Payments But Senate Passage In Doubt

    Unlike the experience of the general public who access state or federal health care exchanges to choose coverage, the choices offered to Members of Congress are dramatically different than those from many other parts of the nation. For 2017, Members had 57 plan options in "Gold" plans alone on the DC shop exchange. In many areas of the nation, particularly rural ones, Gold plans aren't even available. Unlike the Silver and Bronze level plans, Gold plans have lower deductibles, and cover 80% of costs with patients paying only 20%. Silver plans, for example, typically come with deductibles ranging from ,500 - ,000, and pay 70% of costs while patients pay the other 30%. And in some areas of the country, people are happy if they have a choice of more than six silver plans. Certain parts of the country have only one. .No change to 401(k)s or IRAs: Prior to enactment, concerns were high that tax reform would restrict the amount of pretax contributions working people could make to workplace retirement accounts. Congress did not do this, and the tax rules affecting these accounts, for the most part, remain the same. .The foam has been more effective in clearing most of Graves' symptoms and her Medicare Part D plan has paid for most of the cost of the "golden foam" so far. But Graves is keeping use of the medicine to a minimum, not only for health reasons, but because she doesn't want to run through her Part D initial coverage limit and hit the doughnut hole. … Continued

  • Q December 2016

    The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would eliminate many important tax deductions that older Americans rely on to reduce their taxable retirement income and preserve their savings. Those include deductions for medical expenses, which can be considerable for retirees. The bill also eliminates the deduction for state and local income taxes, casualty loss expenses, such as fire, wind damage and theft, and imposes new limits for the mortgage interest deduction. "The loss of these exemptions would leave older Americans paying taxes on more retirement income and higher tax bills," Johnson says. .What To Do When You Can't Afford Your Drug Costs .What can you do? … Continued

To learn more about President Obama's Executive Action On Immigration, see TSCL's F.A.Q.: "What Does "Executive Action" On Immigration Have To Do With Social Security and Medicare?" .The issue of physician choice and access to care for Medicare recipients arises time and again as Congress has taken last minute action to prevent drastic cuts to physician reimbursements. Only repeated, last-minute actions have saved doctors from substantial pay cuts. Cutting reimbursements for doctors has surface appeal because it does not require seniors to pay additional dollars out-of-pocket. However, there is a hidden cost. Physicians who live under constant fear of substantial cuts may opt to stop serving Medicare patients, resulting in loss of access to care for many seniors. .But New Co-Pay "Tiers" May Raise Some Costs .Because of the huge demand various brands of sanitizers started appearing in stores that we had not seen before. Then we were alerted that some of those that were made in Mexico contained methanol, a form of alcohol that's poisonous to humans, and we should not use them. .Both House and Senate tax reform bills index the individual tax brackets and the standard deduction to the slowly-growing "chained" Consumer Price Index (CPI). This change will result in tax increases for most individuals over time because they will reach higher tax brackets faster than they would under current law. It also increases the probability that lawmakers will apply the inadequate "chained" CPI as a cost-saving measure to other government indexes that grow with inflation, like the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). .Shop around for heartworm and flea preventatives: Heartworms can kill your dog or cat, while fleas and ticks carry dangerous diseases that can be transmitted to humans. While vets often have discount coupons associated with these products, if you want to save more money, it's important to compare prices, especially at pet supply websites such as 1-800- PetMeds, and Chewy.com. Those companies often have much lower prices, especially after discounts are thrown in. ."Our example just looked at the salaries and performance pay of just 20 CEOs," notes Johnson. "According to the Social Security Administration, there will be 12 million people who earn above the taxable maximum in 2018," she adds. .If you have been fully vaccinated: .The flurry of activity in Congress has shared the top of the news this week with the continuing Covid-19 crisis and the beginning of the vaccine distribution program. We try not to repeat news here that is available to everyone who gets their news from TV, radio, newspapers or online, but there are two things that occurred in all the activity that are especially important to seniors.