News

  • Update Social Security Benefits Lose 32 Percent Of Buying Power

    When it comes to generic drugs, a "substantial portion" of U.S. imports come either directly from China or third countries such as India, which use active ingredients sourced from China. .Let your Representative know what you think! Ask him or her to co-sponsor, H.R. 2745, the No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act. Send an email here. .For updates on the progress of the Prescription Drug Affordability Act or for more information about the Medicare Part D doughnut hole, visit our website at or find us on Facebook and Twitter. … Continued

  • Category Issues Cola Bills

    Social Security benefits are one of the few sources of retirement benefits to be adjusted for inflation. The intention is to protect the buying power of benefits when prices increase. But retirees frequently notice that over time their Social Security benefits don't buy as much as they used to. This happens when the annual COLA doesn't keep pace with the increases in costs typically experienced by older and disabled beneficiaries. .Ask about insurer discounts. When shopping, learn what the prospective insurer gives discounts for. Smoke detectors, burglar alarms and dead bolt locks can be worth a 5% premium discount. .TSCL believes this type of mathematical gimmickry shortchanges the measurement of real cost increases, thereby shortchanging the COLAs of almost 58 million beneficiaries. Yet this is just one of many such changes since 198TSCL believes that the strongest protection Social Security recipients have against such machinations of benefits is legislation that would guarantee that COLAs would be no less than 3%. This could be paid for by lifting the Social Security taxable maximum so that high-income earners making more than 8,500 pay their fair share of taxes. This not only is fair, but would ensure more adequate benefits for all retirees. … Continued

To cover the projected cost, lawmakers included a reduction in funding to the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which was created by the ACA to support preventive care efforts, the management of chronic conditions, and developments in public health. .This week, action on Capitol Hill remained slow as the fall recess continued. .This week, TSCL enthusiastically announced its support for the Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures (PRIME) Act (S. 1123 and H.R. 2305). In the Senate, the bill was introduced by Sens. Tom Carper (DE) and Tom Coburn (OK), and in the House, it was introduced by Reps. Peter Roskam (IL-6) and John Carney (DE). It currently has bipartisan support, with fifteen cosponsors in the Senate and ten in the House. .Medicare open enrollment: It pays to get it right .TSCL believes that these two provisions unfairly reduce the earned benefits of millions of seniors each year. We were pleased to see support grow for the Social Security Fairness Act this week. .By Representative Gloria Negrete McLeod (CA-35) .TSCL enthusiastically supports H.R. 1029, H.R. 3118, and H.R. 1795, and we were pleased to see support grow for each of them this week. .The new study found that consumer price data through March 2021 indicate that Social Security benefits have (once again) lost 30 percent of their buying power since 2000, and the loss of buying power looks as though it might grow deeper in 2021, should the current inflationary trends continue. The Senior Citizens League has been conducting this study for 12 years. The study typically looks at data from the 1month period of January of the previous year to January of the current year. But with recent aggressive inflation, TSCL felt it critical to include this data in our 2021 study findings. Doing so helps TSCL and the public to learn how this abrupt rise of inflation affects the buying power of Social Security benefits today. .The Senior Citizens League was disappointed that the President did not comment on Social Security or Medicare during his State of the Union address, but we were pleased that he spoke about the need to reduce prescription drug prices. The President said he was proud to have helped improve "access to breakthrough cures and affordable generic drugs" by speeding up the FDA approvals process last year. That move could increase competition and bring down prices by encouraging generics to enter the market more quickly.