News

  • Legislative Update For Week Ending March 4 2016

    Under current law, the Medicare program excludes coverage of most routine and emergency dental care, leaving around 70 percent of seniors without comprehensive dental insurance coverage. Will you support the Medicare Dental Benefit Act (S. 22) to ensure that seniors have access to essential health care? .A new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that undocumented immigrants who receive work authorization are eligible to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits on the basis of their work history. Under current law there's no citizenship requirement to receive benefits, but individuals must be lawfully present in the U.S. That will mean higher spending on Social Security and Medicare in the future, the CBO said. While the CBO said new payroll taxes would boost Social Security and Medicare's financial condition in the short term, in the long term federal spending would increase significantly as those people became eligible for benefits. .How Much Should You Spend on Vet Care for Your Pets? … Continued

  • Category Legislative News Page 38

    If he proceeds, Trump would force drug companies to accept lower payments from Medicare for treatments administered in doctors' offices. The rule would apply to certain drugs bought by the "Part B" section of Medicare. .These laws affect state or local government workers in twenty-six states and teachers in fifteen states, because their employers do not withhold Social Security taxes from their salaries. The GPO affects public servants who are entitled to Social Security spousal or survivors benefits based on the work history of a husband or wife. Often, the benefits to which they are entitled are eliminated altogether. The WEP affects those public servants who have earned pensions from their state or local government, but have also paid into Social Security through previous employment. Their earned Social Security benefits are often unfairly reduced by one-half or more. .Look into mail-order pharmacies. When ordering by mail you save money because you order in quantity – a 90-day versus a 30-day supply. Many mail order pharmacies charge lower co-pays for a 90-day supply than what you pay for a 60-day. Check with your drug plan to find out if mail order is available. … Continued

Get free one-on-one counseling. If all this makes you want to run away screaming, but you still have questions, just call your State Health Insurance Program (SHIP). You can get free one-on-one Medicare benefits counseling that can help you check your drug plan and figure out your charges. Many of these programs operate through local area agencies on aging. You can find local contact information at this website: https://www.shiptacenter.org. .While the policy will mean that Medicare would spend less, patients will spend more— often, a lot more, and the charges would broadside most beneficiaries, coming as a complete surprise. TSCL is strongly opposed to this type of backdoor benefit cut, and has written a letter to President Biden urging him to rescind this CMS rule. Please sign our petition! .Here are some ways to trim the cost of visits to the vet: .Make no mistake: millions of American families and our entire economy depend on getting mature workers the right skills for today's jobs. We need them back at work, earning good salaries, investing in their retirement, mentoring young workers and driving our economy forward. .It eliminated the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). This fifteen-member board of unelected officials was created by the Affordable Care Act in 2010 to keep Medicare spending down when it exceeded a certain level. While that level was never surpassed and no members were ever appointed to the board, TSCL felt that it could have threatened access to quality medical care for Medicare beneficiaries since it had the power to cut payments to doctors and limit networks of providers. TSCL has advocated for bipartisan legislation for years that would have eliminated the IPAB, and we were pleased that the Bipartisan Budget Act did just that. .Check to see if your drug plan has a deductible, and how much the deductible should be. The number of drug plans that are charging a deductible increased in 2020, and a larger percentage of the plans is charging the full standard deductible of 5 in 2020. A deductible is the amount you pay before your coverage kicks in. Deductibles can vary in how they are applied. You may get coverage for generics from day one, but you are probably going to be required to satisfy a deductible for your Eliquis. Of particular note, enrollees in the SilverScript Choice plan paid no deductible in many regions of the U.S. last year, but they will pay as much as 5 in 2020. A similar situation affects enrollees of the Humana Enhanced plan, who paid no deductible in 201For those who chose to remain in the plan — which is now called Humana Premier Rx, they will pay a 5 deductible. .The IRS also issued similar warnings about coronavirus imposter scams related to stimulus checks, overdue payments, filing extensions and other tax related topics. .These attacks on the safety and security of seniors in our communities are unacceptable but, unfortunately, they aren't new. Before the pandemic, scams targeting the elders in our community were already on the rise. At a town hall I held in Los Angeles in early 2018, I heard multiple stories from relatives of seniors in our community who had been targeted by scams. .Both House and Senate tax reform bills index the individual tax brackets and the standard deduction to the slowly-growing "chained" Consumer Price Index (CPI). This change will result in tax increases for most individuals over time because they will reach higher tax brackets faster than they would under current law. It also increases the probability that lawmakers will apply the inadequate "chained" CPI as a cost-saving measure to other government indexes that grow with inflation, like the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).