News

  • Weekly Update For Week Ending December 5 2020

    Medicare Part B premiums increased to 4 month in 2017 – and the higher costs continue to hit older adults, including a large number of low-income individuals who struggle to make ends meet. For these seniors who live paycheck-to-paycheck on Social Security, our failed system means they're facing impossible choices. A meal or medicine? A raincoat or rent payment? .The CBO said earlier this year that if the Congress did not take action to address the shortfalls, the balances in the two trust funds would be exhausted within the next 10 years: Medicare's Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund (in fiscal year 2024), and Social Security's Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund (in fiscal year 2026) .This week, the Social Security Administration (SSA) revealed that it has been overpaying almost half of all Disability Insurance (DI) enrollees, and The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) saw one key bill gain critical support. … Continued

  • Category Issues Medicare Part D Articles Page 8

    Last year, under Shkreli's direction, Turing Pharmaceuticals made headlines for buying the rights to a decades-old anti-infective drug and hiking its price from .50 per pill to 0 per pill. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had tough questions for Turing's representatives at Thursday's hearing, and each of them expressed their dismay for the price gouging that is occurring in the pharmaceutical market. .The resolution would also allow committees to meet remotely using interactive technology and let members cast votes remotely during the legislative process. .This week, one new cosponsor – Rep. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (MP) – signed on to the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E) Act (H.R. 1030), bringing the total up to twenty. If signed into law, the CPI-E Act would base the Social Security COLA upon the spending patterns of seniors. Currently, it's based upon the way young, urban workers spend their money – a method that underestimates the spending inflation that seniors experience each year. … Continued

This study looks at 39 expenditures that are typical for people age 65 and up, comparing the growth in the prices of these goods and services to the growth in the annual COLAs. Based on consumer price index data through April 2021, it appears that the next COLA will be considerably higher in 202The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) is forecasting that the 2022 COLA could be 4.7%, making it the highest since 200But with such a high level of inflation volatility, this estimate could change several times before the COLA is announced in October 2021. .Have you heard anything about congress fixing a Social Security cut for those of us born in 1960? — K.S. .Case 2— A man born in Mexico worked under his father's SSN for 9 years and then had these wages transferred when he acquired his own SSN before collecting retirement benefits. From 1999 to 2002 he collected approximately ,441 in retirement benefits, including benefits for dependents based on his account. Estimated benefits over 20 years — ,300. .Confirmation Process Begins for Burwell .Most working people pay Social Security taxes on every dollar earned and many pay more in Social Security taxes than in federal income taxes. Yet nearly one out of five workers — some 18% — pay no Social Security taxes on any earnings over the Social Security taxable maximum — which is 8,400 in 2018. .The alternative to this approach is control by a board of unelected bureaucrats known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). This board will consist of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats empowered to make decisions about what kind of care people on Medicare can receive. I am greatly concerned that this board is being given way too much authority to determine what benefits are covered and how much physicians are paid. This commission's sole intention will be to determine whether Medicare is spending more than is budgeted and, if so, to offer "fixes" to cut back on Medicare spending that would then be fast-tracked with very little opportunity for Congressional input. President Obama's former Budget Director Peter Orszag called IPAB "the single biggest yielding of power to an independent entity since the creation of the federal reserve." I believe the best way to control costs in Medicare is to increase choice and competition, not cede control of health care decisions to a board of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats. .Grassley's proposal has long been seen as the most likely major drug pricing legislation to reach Trump's desk. However, conservative groups dislike the bill's cap on drug pricing increases and the legislation's main Democratic sponsor, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), recently withdrew from negotiations on the package. .This week, action on Capitol Hill slowed down as Members of Congress adjourned for a holiday recess. ."The need for an Emergency COLA has never been greater," says Benton. TSCL is meeting with Congress to urge lawmakers to enact emergency legislation to provide a COLA large enough to boost benefits in 2016 and 201In addition, TSCL is asking Members of Congress to pass legislation that would use a senior consumer price index, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), to more fairly calculate the annual boost.