News

  • Weekly Update For Week Ending September 26 2020

    "For the third year in a row, millions of older Americans will once again see no increase in their net operating Social Security payments, particularly if Medicare Part B premiums remain 4 per month in 2018, as currently forecast by the Medicare Trustees," says TSCL's Social Security and Medicare Policy Analyst, Mary Johnson. "The problem is that a substantial portion of beneficiaries currently are paying a Part B premium that is about less than that now," Johnson says. .The report goes on to say that "… the bill is fiercely opposed by Republicans and the powerful pharmaceutical industry, with executives warning it would harm innovation that leads to new drug development. The 50-50 split in the Senate is also raising questions about whether it could get through that chamber without losing any moderate Democrats." .Are These Home Nurse Visits Legit? … Continued

  • No Cost Of Living Adjustment

    August Congressional Recess Continues .Expanded tax credits — Social Security numbers would pave the way for applicants to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Additional Child Tax credit. In a recent Senate hearing, Eileen O'Connor, who ran the Justice Department's Tax Division under George W. Bush, explained that these refundable tax credits, "can create a ‘refund' of an amount you never paid as income taxes. So you can have a liability before the credit of 0, have paid in nothing, and with a refundable earned income tax credit of ,000, get a check from Uncle Sam for 0." She went on to say that immigrants who acquire Social Security numbers would be able to amend three years of previous tax returns to claim the earned income credit. The U.S. Government Accountability Office recently reported that an estimated 24% of all refunds due to the Earned Income Tax Credit are paid improperly. .As a country, we need to be ready to fix this problem once our economy recovers by making reforms that strengthen both programs. Once this occurs, more money will flow back into the trust funds to bolster their coffers. To address this issue I introduced H.R. 1517, the Social Security and Medicare Lock-Box Act, which would establish separate surplus accounts for both the Social Security and Medicare Part A trust fund and help protect against anyone in Washington from spending those resources on unrelated projects. Washington may be broken but legislation like H.R. 1517 will help ensure retirees' hard-earned tax dollars are protected and our promise to seniors is kept. … Continued

"The loss of a job not only means the loss of income, but it also can mean the loss of healthcare benefits, and both employee and employer contributions to retirement accounts," Johnson notes. Depending on how long older workers remain out work, a growing number may turn to Social Security and file claims for benefits earlier than originally planned. That can mean permanently reduced benefits for people who haven't reached their full retirement age. .Lawmakers returned to their home states and districts this week to celebrate the Christmas holiday. Members of the Senate returned to Capitol Hill on Thursday, while Members of the House are expected to return on Sunday, just one day before the Fiscal Cliff is scheduled to hit. .(CDC's mission is to protect America from health, safety, and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable, or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.) .Health care for seniors is also one of the top issues on our agenda at TSCL and we have been talking to Congressional offices about our concerns. That's why we were happy to see progress this week regarding the issue of surprise medical billing. Surprise billing has been a real problem for some seniors who have Medicare Advantage. It's an issue that TSCL has been discussing with Congress and that we've written about for the last few weeks. .As we've found out in our meetings with Congressional staff members, Congress is hearing thousands of complaints from voters who want surprise billing stopped. But, they are also hearing from the health care providers who are making a lot of money from surprise billings and they are fighting back to try and stop or modify legislation. Because of the pressure Congress is receiving from opposing sides, getting legislation to fix the problem is more complicated than you might expect. There are four bills in the Senate to deal with the issue and five in the House. ."Hello seniors!" the voice bellows. "Medicare covers a remarkable new device that can give you freedom from lower back pain! Hold the phone to find out how to get your free, Medicare-covered back brace. " While free usually sounds good, this call is worse than a pain in the lower backside. It's. Feds Bust 243 People In Biggest Medicare Fraud Yet In what the U.S. Department of Justice is calling the largest nationwide crackdown on Medicare and Medicaid fraud ever, some 243 people were recently arrested and charged for bilking Medicare out of 2 million. Those charged include 46 doctors, nurses, and other licensed medical professionals. .The Senior Citizens League encourages its supporters to attend these events and to ask important questions of their elected officials, like the following three… .On the unemployment payments to individuals, there are a lot of legal questions about the money the President wants to use to pay for this. He calls for billion of funding from the Department of Homeland Security's Disaster Relief Fund that is normally used for hurricanes, tornadoes, and massive fires to be shifted over to unemployment. .The payraise goes into effect automatically unless denied by legislation, or adjusted by a provision of law that prevents Congress from receiving a percentage of pay increase that would be greater than any payraise received by the General Schedule to federal workers. When Congress passed legislation in December of 2010 that froze the pay of federal workers through December 31, 2012, they effectively froze their own pay as well. No similar provision of law, however, prevents Congress from receiving a bigger COLA than seniors. The adjustment for Congress is not determined like the COLA for seniors, which is based on changes in consumer prices. Instead the Congressional COLA is based on changes in private sector wages and salaries as measured by the Employment Cost Index. Members of Congress were originally scheduled to receive a pay adjustment in January 2010, of 2.1%, and in 2011 of 0.9% had legislation not prohibited it.