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  • 56 Percent Social Security Recipients Paid Tax Benefits New Survey Senior Citizens League

    This week, The Senior Citizens League was pleased to see support grow for two key bills that would strengthen the Social Security program. .The Effect of Economic Conditions Was Not Foreseen, and Therefore Could Not Have Been Intended by Congress .The orders were issued on a Friday which left little time for analysts to review them and comment prior to the weekend. However, since then we have learned new information, we want to share with you. … Continued

  • Category Issues Medicare Part D Articles Page 5

    According to that study, during a recent five-year period, Medicare spending on hundreds of medicines to treat various neurologic conditions, such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, rose 50%, but the number of claims increased only 8%. .Deferred Action allows immigrants under the age of 33, who entered the country illegally as children, to request consideration of deferred action on deportation. In addition, the program provides temporary work authorization, and valid Social Security numbers. The work permits are good for two years and the Obama Administration recently announced they are taking applications for renewal. .On Tuesday, House lawmakers advanced two Senate-passed bills that will reduce prescription drug prices at pharmacies if signed into law. The Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act (S. 2554) will prohibit "gag clauses" that prevent pharmacists from telling consumers when it would be cheaper to purchase their prescriptions out-of-pocket rather than through their health insurance. Similarly, the Know the Lowest Price Act (S. 2553) will protect Medicare beneficiaries from "gag clauses." … Continued

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. .This is certainly the case in Florida's 5th Congressional District, which I represent, where one in every four citizens has received SNAP benefits at some point over the past 12 months, a rate which is nearly twice the national average. It is estimated that only 42 percent of eligible seniors are enrolled in SNAP. SSI and the MSP have similarly low rates among seniors and individuals with disabilities. This is unacceptable. .Democrats currently have an eight-seat majority in the House, meaning 10 defections could doom the legislation. Of those 10 members, seven got contributions last cycle from PhRMA, according to Federal Election Commission records. Six received donations from AbbVie's political action committee. .In 2018, 74% of participants in TSCL's 2018 Senior Survey said to improve Social Security's financing, they support applying the full 12.4% Social Security payroll tax to all earnings, rather than just limiting the amount of wages that are taxable, which is 2,900 in 201Fifty nine percent of survey participants support very gradually raising the Social Security payroll tax by 1% each for workers and employers. TSCL is working to acquaint Congress with Social Security financing changes that have the broadest support among older Americans. .How Can We Cope With Debt In Retirement? .In addition, two new cosponsors – Reps. Pete Olson (TX-22) and Adam Kinzinger (IL-16) – signed on to the Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures (PRIME) Act (H.R. 2305), bringing the total up to sixty. If signed into law, the PRIME Act would take a number of steps to comprehensively prevent fraud, waste, and abuse within Medicare and Medicaid – a problem that TSCL believes must be addressed in order to ensure that scarce program dollars are being spent properly. .New coronavirus legislation in the works .The legislation is called a "CR" - a continuing resolution, which means the government will be funded for a short period of time and for the most part it will be at the same funding levels as in fiscal year 201The CR will last until Nov. 21 at which time one of three things must have happened. Either they will have finally passed all the funding bills needed for the rest of the fiscal year; or they will have passed another CR; or we will have another government shut-down. .It's not what the government tracks that causes your Social Security cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to grow so slowly. It's what the government isn't tracking that's keeping your COLAs so low. It may surprise you, as it did us at TSCL, to recently learn that COLAs are calculated using methodology that doesn't directly measure what you pay out-of-pocket for health insurance premiums. Add to that the fact that the consumer price index (CPI) the government uses to calculate COLAs (CPI-W) represents the spending habits of younger urban wage earners and clerical workers — or the spending habits of only 29% of the U.S. population. That's certainly not going to reflect the inflation experienced by most Social Security recipients.