News

  • Study Shows High Drug Prices Result In Increased Deaths

    The "grandparent scam" has been around for a while, where a scammer poses as a relative, often a grandchild, in a desperate situation in urgent need of money. Due to the economic crisis created by the pandemic, the Federal Communications Commission has worked to raise the awareness of the grandparent scam. .Medicare Doesn't Recover The Majority Of Overpayment Payment Amounts, .Survey participants also support making changes to modestly increase benefits by using a senior CPI, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), to determine the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA), and to provide a boost of about per month. TSCL is meeting with Members of Congress to enact these changes. With 73% of survey participants reporting that their household expenses in 2015 rose by more than a month, while average Social Security benefits are stuck around ,250 due to low or no COLAs, TSCL is making a strong case that older Americans need a raise! … Continued

  • Could Your Benefits Be Notched

    In its June 2018 Long Term Budget Outlook, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that earnings will grow faster for higher-income people than for others over the next 30 years. The CBO expects that trend to lead to a decrease in the amount of payroll tax receipts that otherwise would flow into Social Security, as a greater share of earnings will be above the maximum amount subject to Social Security payroll taxes. .For those Social Security recipients concerned about making ends meet going forward, here are some tips: .Now there is a lobbying effort to make sure enough money is provided for those programs because without sufficient funding states could choose not to take the money and leave their Medicaid programs running as is. … Continued

TSCL's Endorsement Sought for Social Security Bill .Two Social Security Reforms That Seniors Strongly Support .According to an article last week in StatNews, a newsletter that covers health and medical issues, the answer seems to be "whichever one is available to you first." .Five Key Bills Gain Support .This week, talks between three committees – the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee – to repeal and replace the SGR seemed to have stalled. The three committees are currently working on merging their own separate bills to repeal the outdated formula and set up a sustainable path forward. They have until March 31st to do so. Should they fail to reach a compromise, doctors who treat Medicare patients will see a pay cut of approximately 25 percent, which could threaten seniors' access to quality medical care. .Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) have languished at exceptionally low levels in recent years. Administration officials and economists point to the sluggish economy and recent economic recession as the reason. But government tinkering with the consumer price index (CPI) is playing an enormous role in reducing the measured rate of inflation, in turn cutting the growth in Social Security benefits. ."Social Security was originally created to lift older Americans out of poverty," Johnson notes. "The annual COLA is intended to prevent erosion in the buying power of benefits," Johnson says. "Between the growth in healthcare costs and flat growth in benefits, the COLA is failing the very people it's intended to protect," she says. .On Thursday evening, lawmakers in the House and Senate voted to pass a continuing resolution (CR) that will fund the federal government until Friday, December 22nd. TSCL is pleased that lawmakers successfully averted a government shutdown since failing to do so could have impacted the timely delivery of Social Security benefits. Physicians and other medical providers also could have seen delays in their reimbursements from the Medicare program if the federal government had shut down. .Now, allergy season has arrived and in the United States as many as 30 percent of adults and 40 percent of kids have seasonal allergies.