News

  • Congressional Corner Its Time To Tackle The High Cost Of Prescription Drugs

    This week, the House of Representatives was scheduled to consider legislation which would repeal the health care reform law. However, due to the tragic shooting in Arizona over the weekend—which left six people dead, eleven wounded, and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-8) clinging to life—the House schedule was cleared. .Medicare first started covering rehabilitation services in 197Just seven years later in 1979, Congress enacted a cap of 0 on outpatient therapy due to concerns that rehabilitation outpatient services would take over the Medicare budget. The cap – which was indexed to medical inflation – remained in place until the passage of the "Balanced Budget Act of 1997," when a ,500 cap was passed into law and set to take effect in 199However, President Clinton halted the implementation of the ,500 cap, leaving services open to reimbursements by Medicare. Since 1999, several bills introduced in Congress sought to either repeal or keep the spending cap on rehabilitation services, with the cap drawing bipartisan criticism as being unfair to Medicare beneficiaries. .According to the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) recent baseline data for the Social Security Trust Funds, Social Security is expected to receive about 7 billion in payroll tax revenues in 202The CBO further estimates that the Trust Fund would receive billion in revenues in 2021 from the taxation of Social Security benefits. … Continued

  • Retirees Spent Less On Healthcare Costs In 2020

    Republican leaders have also begun discussing plans to reform Medicare and Medicaid next year in an effort to reduce the deficit that the .5 trillion tax bill will create. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (WI-1) said in a radio interview on Wednesday: "We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit … This has been my big thing for many, many years. I think [Medicare is] the biggest entitlement we've got to reform." TSCL opposes reforms to Medicare, Medicaid, and other earned benefit programs that would result in higher out-of-pocket costs for older Americans. We will continue to advocate against benefit cuts in the months ahead. .That spells trouble for people living on fixed incomes. "When COLAs fall down on the job of protecting benefit buying power, seniors face working longer, digging deeper into retirement savings, or falling into debt and poverty," says Ed Cates, Chairman of TSCL. .Improving and maintaining access to affordable, lifesaving prescription drugs is a top concern for TSCL's supporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes and cannot afford steep and sudden cost increases. … Continued

This week, lawmakers in the House and Senate remained in their home states and districts for the two-week spring recess. Both chambers are scheduled to be back in session by Tuesday, April 25th. .Under both measures, the poverty rate increases with age, and was higher for people in relatively poor health. .This week, TSCL announced its support for legislation that Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (CA-46) recently re-introduced: the No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act (H.R. 2745). Each year, millions of unauthorized workers use invalid, stolen, or fraudulent Social Security numbers to get jobs in the United States. Later, if they receive "green cards" or work authorization, they may file a claim for Social Security benefits based on those illegal earnings. TSCL feels that Congress should put an end to this practice in order to protect the integrity of the Social Security program and to prevent further strains on the Trust Fund. Rep. Rohrabacher's bill – which was introduced with twenty cosponsors last week – would do just that, and we look forward to working with him throughout the 113th Congress to help build support for it. .A huge inconsistency between U.S. immigration law and Social Security threatens to undermine the income security of millions of U.S. senior citizens and the disabled. In 2004 Congress passed legislation requiring immigrants to have work authorization at the time a Social Security number is assigned or at some later time, in order to become entitled under Social Security.(1) Therefore, immigrants who obtain authorization to work in this country may eventually claim benefits based on all earnings. .TSCL supports allowing any veteran to get the Covid vaccine at the VA and we will keep an eye on the progress of this effort. .We encourage all Medicare beneficiaries, who wish to have the legal right to import less costly FDA-approved prescription drugs, to contact your Members of Congress. Ask them to pass the Pharmaceutical Market Access legislation, H.R. 328 (House) and S. 334 (Senate). .According to a 2013 Pew Research study, women tend to take time off work to have children or care for aging family members more often than men, and then wind up with zero or only low earnings during those years. This reduces the initial Social Security retirement benefit. If a woman works entirely as a stay-at-home mom or is a full-time caregiver and doesn't take a job with an employer or is not self-employed, this means she would only rely on survivor or spousal benefits based on her spouse's work record for financial support. .Sen. Bernard Sanders (VT) introduced S. 500 on March 7, 201It has since been referred to the Committee on Finance. .It was during this time that TREA Senior Citizens League (TSCL) was founded, and of its primary goals became the representation of those affected by the Notch in Congress. Recognizing that Congress created the Notch by reducing Social Security benefits in the past, and that baby-boomers nearing retirement would provide continuing pressure to reduce benefits in the near future, TSCL's primary mission is to protect "earned" Social Security and Medicare benefits.