News

  • Legislative Update For Week Ending October 23 2015

    Bloomberg News reports that the legislation would establish a task force on older investors at the Securities and Exchange Commission. This Senior Investor Taskforce would be required to identify challenges such as the financial exploitation and cognitive decline of investors older than 65, and to consider whether rules issued by the SEC or securities self-regulatory organizations should be changed to benefit them. .TSCL Announces Support for New Legislation .The GAO has noted that a totalization agreement may motivate additional unauthorized workers to come to the United States. Similarly, the prospect of an amnesty program passing the Congress in the coming months will likely encourage increased illegal immigration in anticipation of an easy road to U.S. citizenship. … Continued

  • Ask The Advisor May 2014

    New retirees often fail to understand just how rising Medicare costs can result in less Social Security income than anticipated. The Social Security Administration automatically deducts premiums for Medicare Part B from Social Security benefits. This year, the Part B premium is 4.00 per month for retirees with incomes under ,000 and the Medicare Trustees estimate it will rise to 5.50 for 2019. .If signed into law, the PRIME Act would take a number of steps to prevent and reduce fraud, waste, and abuse within the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Among other things, it would enact stronger fraud penalties, curb mistaken payments by the agencies, phase out the ineffective "pay and chase" practice, reduce the theft of physician identities, and improve the sharing of fraud data among states, agencies, and programs. .Thousands of The Senior Citizens League's supporters – including the 800 petition signers – have told us they are failing to keep up with rising costs, and they are forced every day to make tough decisions about how they will spend their Social Security checks. To address this growing issue, The Senior Citizens League and its supporters urge Congress to adopt the Social Security Expansion Act (S. 427) before the end of the 115th Congress. … Continued

To shop and switch to a new Medicare Advantage health plan, visit www.Medicare.gov and click on the link to "Find health and drug plans." View the videos supplied to help you learn how to use the tool. If you feel you need more help, free one-on-one counseling is available through State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIP) that operate through many local area agencies on aging. To find the agency in your area, try the Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-111To learn more about Medicare, visit MedicareInteractive.org, an online tool that can answer your Medicare questions, created and maintained by the Medicare Rights Center. .It is believed that Trump issued the executive orders because a drive to enact major legislation this year stalled in Congress. Although Trump has told Republican senators that lowering prescription prices is 'something you have to do,' many remain reluctant to use federal authority to force drug makers to charge less. .By Representative Gloria Negrete McLeod (CA-35) .Because COVID-19 has never been seen in humans before, there are currently no vaccines to prevent COVID-19 approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA recently approved the first treatment for COVID-19, the antiviral drug remdesivir. .For more information about the Social Security Administration Fairness Act, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website. For updates on the administration's progress, follow The Senior Citizens League on Twitter. .Among the bills that make up the GOP plan is one that would establish congressional review boards to examine the long-term solvency of the three trust funds, a topic that long has been politically fraught. .It's no longer a matter of 'if' Congress will cut Social Security and Medicare, but "when" most policy observers now believe. Much will depend on Congressional budget negotiations in coming weeks as lawmakers address the extent to which borrowing can continue for payment of Social Security and Medicare benefits. .Every day approximately ten thousand people reach their retirement age. Many have spent a lifetime working to care for their families and save for retirement all while paying federal taxes. The taxes paid into Social Security and Medicare have helped make these programs successful for past generations of retirees. .It closed the Medicare outpatient therapy cap. Before the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act, Medicare coverage for various forms of outpatient therapy – including physical therapy and speech therapy – was arbitrarily capped at ,500 per year. For years, lawmakers sought to repeal this cap since it limited the care older Americans could receive under Medicare. TSCL advocated tirelessly for Congressman Erik Paulsen's (MN-3) bipartisan Medicare Access to Rehabilitation Services Act (H.R. 807), and we were thrilled that a similar provision was included in this year's bipartisan budget agreement, repealing the therapy cap once and for all.