News

  • Benefits For Illegal Work A Growing Liability To Social Security

    When he issued the orders President Trump gave the drug industry until Aug. 24 to find a suitable alternative to one of his drug pricing plans. He also announced that he would be meeting with drug company executives last Tuesday to begin discussions about a different plan. .While most in Washington acknowledge this dilemma, and House Republicans have put forward a plan to address the issue, our leaders have yet to agree upon a solution to preserve the program for seniors beyond that date, and instead are pitting each other against seniors. .Actuaries aren't in agreement over how many more years of solvency Social Security has left. The 2018 Social Security Trustees Report estimates that the Social Security Trust Fund will become insolvent in 2034, about 15 years from now. The more pessimistic Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the depletion date would be two years sooner in 2032, only 13 years away. If Congress does nothing, and allows the Social Security Trust Fund to become insolvent, the program could still pay benefits, but benefits would be cut to coincide with the amount of revenue received — by about 25%. … Continued

  • Legislative Update October 2013

    This week, The Senior Citizens League was pleased to see support grow for three key bills that would improve the Social Security and Medicare programs if adopted. .The President's favored nations rule has also upset conservative groups along with the industry and patient organizations. Some of those groups had launched a media campaign against the proposal before Trump actually announced it. .The following four bills were the focus of Legislative Liaison Kluck's meetings on Capitol Hill in December… … Continued

TSCL supports several bills in the House that would strengthen your Social Security benefits by indexing the COLA using the CPI-E. Visit us at www.SeniorsLeague to learn the latest on this legislation and what you can do to help move this legislation in Congress! .This makes additional protective measures such as mask-wearing all the more necessary. .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. .TSCL supports both prescription drug bills introduced by Senators Franken and Sanders earlier this year, and we will continue to advocate for them tirelessly in the coming months. We will also continue to monitor these discussions on Capitol Hill closely, as the Senate HELP Committee is expected to hold two additional hearings on the prescription drug topic in the near future. For updates, visit the Legislative News section of our website, or follow TSCL on Twitter. .The Senior Citizens League enthusiastically supports S. 2554, H.R. 1251, and H.R. 4704, and we will continue to advocate for their passage in the months ahead. For more information, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website. .As of yet, the text of the bills has not been released but TSCL will be closely monitoring these bills to determine if we will be supporting them. Coverage of dental and hearing care are two of our priorities and we are hopeful this legislation will provide the solution for one of those goals. .TSCL recently released an analysis of the proposal that estimates the chained CPI would cut the growth in average benefits of ,100 today by ,634 over the course of a 25-year retirement, and that assumes that the economy becomes more stable soon. The reductions in COLA growth compound over time, and are the deepest when seniors are the oldest and sickest. By the time seniors are in their late 80s or 90s, when they are most likely to have chronic health problems, monthly benefits would be about 5 lower using the chained CPI. .The Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith (D-Wash.) has announced that if the bill is vetoed the House will come back into session over the holidays and vote to override. .As the coronavirus continues to be among the major news stories each day, attention has turned to the drug supply in the U.S., not because of the cost but because of the vulnerability of the supply of prescription drugs for use in the nation.