News

  • Tscl Supports Special Extension Of Open Enrollment Period

    This week, the Senate Finance Committee met to discuss the proposed Medicare Part B drug demonstration program with Dr. Patrick Conway, the Acting Principle Deputy Administrator and Chief Medical Officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). .Fraud, waste and abuse are costing taxpayers and seniors an estimated billion a year, but Medicare fails to recover overpayments about 80 percent of the time. The Inspector General recently said that of the 6,287,546 in overpayments identified through the 30-month period ending March 31, 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported collecting only ,168,50But it gets even worse. The OIG said that it could not verify that the ,168,502 had been collected as reported because CMS did not have an adequate system for documenting overpayment collections. .More than 10,000 people died waiting for a disability decision from the Social Security Administration in 201The rising death toll coincides with the growing backlog of people awaiting a decision about their eligibility for Social Security disability insurance benefits. But even after a disabled individual has been found eligible, he or she must wait 5 months for benefits to begin, and 2 whole years before Medicare benefits start. The long waits, especially for Medicare, have forced many low to middle-income disabled beneficiaries to deplete their savings while they wait. … Continued

  • Q A May 2019

    CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf made the report to President Obama's Fiscal Commission which is developing a plan to shrink the national deficit by 2015 — a target that TSCL believes will be extremely difficult to achieve without deep cuts to Social Security and widespread tax increases on middle-income taxpayers. .Consumers in the U.S. are used to have many choices when it comes to the products we buy. Usually that is a good thing. But sometimes it creates a dilemma in deciding which is the right one to get. It turns out that the problem of choice is creating concerns about which of the vaccines against the coronavirus we should take. .Last week House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John Larson (D-Conn.) reiterated the need for Congress to prevent an unintended and unanticipated Social Security benefit reduction – caused by the pandemic recession — that will affect certain beneficiaries, after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an updated estimate of this effect. … Continued

One further reason for the growth is undoubtedly the growth in the primary beneficiary rolls, upon which the benefits of ANP dependents and survivors are based. According to the Inspector General, older non-citizens workers are now at the age and have worked in this country long enough to be potentially eligible to file claims for retirement or disability. The Inspector General has also said that those who worked using invalid, or non-work Social Security numbers issued prior to January 1, 2004, did not need valid work authorization in order to file a claim. Under current law the Social Security Administration uses all earnings, including those for illegal work, to determine entitlement to benefits. .Under a 2004 law, non-citizens who apply for benefits with a SSN assigned in 2004 and thereafter must have legal work authorization at some point in order to file a claim for benefit. But the law does not apply to aliens who received a SSN prior to January 1, 200Those non-citizens may be able to claim Social Security benefits without ever having legally worked. In fact, our government already pays Social Security disability and retirement benefits to non-citizen aliens and their dependents based on illegal earnings. The cost to Social Security of those payments was recently estimated to be 6 billion through 2040, according to Advisor editor and Social Security policy analyst Mary Johnson. .Understand what is covered and what isn't. First the good news: You are probably covered in case a meteorite strikes your home. Now the bad: Your coverage probably doesn't protect you from floods or even a sewer back up. You may be underinsured. Insurance industry surveys indicate, for example, that 43% of homeowners believe damage from heavy rain flooding is covered under the standard insurance policy. It isn't. To be protected you must purchase supplemental flood insurance or other types of riders to your homeowners policy. The same may be true of wild fires, mudslides, sink holes and other natural disasters. If you live in a high-risk zone, consider adding flood or other supplemental coverage. .Editor's note: Telephone etiquette has changed! Ask around, and you'll probably discover that many people are letting their voice mail or answering systems screen calls. This is no longer considered rude — but acting in self - defense. Protect yourself from scam (and your dinner from getting cold due to calls at meal time.). Be defensive: .Second, two new cosponsors – Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN) and Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (MS) – signed on to the bipartisan Concentrating on High-Value Alzheimer's Needs to Get to an End (CHANGE) Act (S. 2387), bringing the total up to eight. If adopted, it would direct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to create programs that would promote early identification of Alzheimer's disease, improve support for family caregivers, and provide continuous care for those battling many forms of dementia. ."Another factor affecting retirement income is the amount of the initial Social Security benefit when one first retires. Social Security benefits are not growing as quickly as in in previous decades," Johnson says. This is particularly true for middle to lower earning workers due to the slow growth in real wages over decades. According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, between 1979 to 2018, real wages have grown for top earners, but have stagnated or fallen for middle to lower earners. "That is reflected in the (often disappointing) initial Social Security benefits of new retirees," Johnson says. .In addition to advocating for these three important issues, Legislative Liaison Joe Kluck delivered letters to lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee urging them to advance comprehensive proposals that would enhance Social Security benefits and strengthen the solvency of the Trust Funds past 203Both the Social Security 2100 Act (H.R. 860) and the Social Security Expansion Act (H.R. 1170) would reform the program responsibly, without cutting benefits for current or future retirees. .The new low comes as COLAs have flat-lined over the past seven years, averaging just 1.2% — less than half the 3% average over the two decades prior to 20The long-term financial impact on anticipated retirement benefits is significant and growing, says TSCL's Executive Director, Shannon Benton. "People lose the effect of compounding when benefit raises are at these extreme lows," she explains. "That reduces the Social Security income that retirees may have been counting on over their retirement." ."The high cost of prescription drugs forces people to do what we shouldn't have to do, like ordering drugs from Canada," says Susan. "I have a friend who went without one of her prescriptions because she didn't have the money, and she died of a stroke. Our government is not doing what it's supposed to do. It's a constant struggle and my husband hasn't retired yet because of our concern about the costs of his prescription drugs for which he currently gets good coverage from his job."