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Best Ways Save October 2018
It is anticipated that one of the orders will be to shift drug and medical production to this country by suddenly cutting off federal agencies from those offshore supply chains. .Protecting Medicare for current beneficiaries and saving it for future generations is one of my most important responsibilities as a Member of Congress. It is no secret that demographic and economic factors will not allow us to continue the program unaltered. There are 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day, and when these programs were first enacted there were more than 40 workers for every 1 retiree. Today, that number is below 3 workers per retiree and headed towards 2 to Health care costs continue to rise much faster than inflation. In order to ensure the solvency of a program that senior citizens have come to rely on, changes must be made. The days of doing nothing, burying our heads in the sand, and pretending the status quo is sustainable are over. .The report analyzed the prescribing patterns of the nation's one million doctors and found that 736 of them had questionable patterns. The drugs prescribed included highly addictive prescriptions for morphine, oxycodone, anabolic steroids, hydrocodone with codeine, and barbiturates. Doctors, and crooks who use stolen provider identification numbers are writing multiple prescriptions for the same patients that are filled by dozens of pharmacies. … Continued
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What is the current status of the Notch issue? .TSCL is opposed to this new rule. It is not possible to reduce the costs of prescription drugs by taking actions that end up making those who need the drugs pay more. .Regrettably, this uncertainty persists during the on-going deficit reduction discussions. Those who received services paid for by Medicare will not be affected by the automatic budget cuts due to the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to reach a compromise. Nevertheless, I am concerned that providers are not also shielded from those cuts. That is why I am co-sponsoring H.R. 3519, legislation to protect Medicare providers from the 2 percent cuts that were part of the Budget Control Act of 2011. … Continued
On Thursday, TSCL held its first ever town hall meeting with great success in North Carolina's 11th Congressional District. TSCL would like to thank Congressional Candidate Mark Meadows for taking time out of his busy schedule to address concerned members and supporters. .This situation is only for 30 months though. Once you turn age 66 you can earn as much as you want without reduction to your Social Security benefits. Meanwhile you continue to work and delay your retirement benefit allowing it to grow. Once you reach age 70 you should go ahead and switch to your own larger retirement benefit, since it won't grow any larger. .Legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs remains one of TSCL's top priorities. Although the House of Representatives has passed a bill to accomplish that priority, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) continues to refuse to bring the bill up for consideration. .While the benefit cuts were negotiated in secret and enacted swiftly with virtually no public debate, Congress passed up the opportunity to close another and far bigger Social Security loophole — one that allows people with the nation's highest wages (including all Members of Congress) to get an enormous tax break, while paying Social Security (FICA) taxes on just a fraction of what they earn. In fact, about 6% of all wage earners, according to the Social Security Administration, pay no Social Security taxes at all on earnings over 8,500. Once they have earned 8,500, these workers get to keep 6.2% of every dollar earned over that amount in wages. ."Even though our new Congress may remain divided, these five areas of broad agreement could be potentially used as a legislative roadmap that would provide greater retirement security and reduce needlessly high Medicare costs," Johnson says. The Senior Citizens League is working for passage of legislation that would boost Social Security benefits, and supports efforts to lower Medicare costs. .Most people who spend the night in the hospital would say they have been an inpatient. But over the past six years, rapidly growing numbers of Medicare beneficiaries have learned that they were never admitted as an inpatient — even though they have stayed in a hospital bed, received treatment, diagnostic tests, and drugs. .We urge you to keep wearing a mask if you been doing so, and if you haven't, please start – for your own safety and the health and safety of those around you. .Other countries, such as Britain, take a more head-on approach: a national body does a cost-benefit analysis regarding the price at which a new drug is worth being made available to its citizens. Health authorities then use that information to negotiate with a drug maker on price and to develop a national reimbursement plan. .One rule, known as "most favored nation," would require Medicare to tie the prices it pays for drugs to those paid by other wealthy countries. The other rule would limit rebates paid to middle men (called "pharmacy benefit managers" or "PBMs") by drug makers in Medicare.