News

  • Social Security Medicare Questions February 2012

    The situation is affecting lower-income seniors with modest resources because states require single seniors to exhaust nearly all of their assets, including their home equity, to qualify for Medicaid. Meyer reports that "Federal Medicaid rules allow states to exempt the home from consideration of financial eligiblilty if the family is making a good faith effort to sell, but not all states do." Depending on where they live, seniors may not qualify for Medicaid if they can't sell their home. .During his campaign for President, and several times since, he has promised that he would protect Social Security and Medicare. Yet a payroll tax cut would result in untold damage to the stability of both programs and bring them dangerously close to insolvency. .In his opening statement, Congressman Buddy Carter (GA-1) – the sole pharmacist in Congress – said, "I'm disgusted that we're here today to talk about drug price increases … I know free market principles are the best way to provide quality, affordable health care to the American people. But what was done here was different. Perverse business practices were employed to exploit a patient group trying to do nothing more than to extend their lives … I'll tell you that you can meet your shareholders' needs, that you can meet your board's needs, and still take care of the American public." … Continued

  • Congressional Corner June 2016

    High Cost of Illegal Work for Social Security Trust Fund .Second, two new cosponsors – Representative Josh Harder (CA-10) and Representative Abby Finkenauer (IA-1) – signed on to the Social Security 2100 Act (H.R. 860), bringing the total up to 20This bill, if adopted, would comprehensively strengthen and reform the Social Security program. .Fraudulent Use of Social Security Numbers Is Not Penalized … Continued

You can apply for widow benefits as early as age 60, but if you start prior to your full retirement age, your benefits will be reduced. In addition, your benefits would be further reduced if you earn more than the annual earnings limit, which is ,640 in 2012 (,220 per month). More on this in a moment. .The COLA will be announced on October 19th, and Medicare premiums and deductibles also will be announced in the fall. Seniors who are already retired and those nearing retirement have few options if the benefits they rely on today were to be cut. TSCL is fighting such proposals affecting the benefits of current retirees, believing that seniors need a COLA that more adequately protects the buying power of Social Security, and TSCL supports H.R. 776, the Guaranteed 3% COLA Act, introduced by Representative Eliot Engel (NY-17). .But financial problems are more likely to compound for Notch Babies and their families because Notch Babies received Social Security benefits lower than those of other retirees having similar work and earnings histories, and they are at the age when many have exhausted their retirement savings and other resources. According to U.S. Census data, 9 percent of men and 14 percent of senior women over 85 have incomes lower than the U.S. poverty level — ,170 for single seniors in 201A core set of benefits is available to low-income seniors including: .Budget Chair Revives Fiscal Commission Plan ."We are saying you need to be doing more inspections," Verma told reporters, explaining her message to states. "We called on states in early March to go into every single nursing home and to do a focused inspection around infection control." .Some policy analysts argue that the "chained" CPI is more accurate, but the Congressional Budget Office has stated that using that index has limitations. Unlike the conventional consumer price index in which final data from one month to the next is available in about two weeks, final data for the chained CPI isn't available until well over a year and a half. "That means preliminary estimates that are subject to error would have to be used for indexing," Johnson explains. .For more than three decades the government has quietly made numerous changes to how the cost of living is defined and measured — asserting that the changes make the CPI more accurate. The general public for the most part is unaware of the changes, and more importantly the financial impact on benefits has never been publically disclosed. .Social Security Administration data indicate that, since 2000, the ESF grew at an unprecedented pace. According to TSCL's new report since 2000, the SSA has received, on average, 8.8 million suspicious wage reports annually. Cumulative wages in the ESF since 1980 now total more than .2 trillion, unadjusted for inflation. Wages are of importance because Social Security benefits are based on an individual's earnings record, not the taxes paid in. .While Part D and Medicare Advantage have proven popular with seniors, nobody is lining up at the doors during the fall Open Enrollment to shop for and compare plans. The vast majority of beneficiaries, more than 80% according to TSCL Senior Surveys, don't compare their Part D or Medicare Advantage plan, and consequently don't reap any savings from competition between plans. If Congress were to convert all of Medicare to premium support in the future, the devil will be in the funding details — finding the balance between saving the federal government money while still keeping the program affordable for beneficiaries. And so far premium support hasn't been any magic bullet for reducing federal spending on Medicare.