News

  • Press Release New Tax Law Social Security

    A new healthcare cost survey conducted in October 2011 by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) — one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups — found that the majority of seniors spent a very significant portion of their Social Security benefits in order to pay for healthcare. The survey asked for information about the out-of-pocket costs that respondents paid in the first six months of 2011, and for comments about how they were managing after two years of receiving no annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). .Another Social Security reform bill – the Social Security for Future Generations Act (H.R. 2855) from Congressman Al Lawson, Jr. (FL-5) – gained one new cosponsor this week. The new cosponsor, Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (MP-1), is the nineteenth lawmaker to officially sign on to the bill. If adopted, it would strengthen and improve the program by adopting the CPI-E, applying the payroll tax to income over 0,000, creating a new benefit for widows and widowers, and increasing the Special Minimum Benefit so it equals 125 percent of the poverty line. .TSCL has long supported adding vision, dental and hearing benefits to Medicare, as well as supporting legislation to lower prescription drug prices. We are waiting to see what the final bills look like that come out of the House and Senate before we determine what kind of endorsement to give. … Continued

  • Category Legislative News Page 51

    Eight new Members of Congress signed on to the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 1332) this week, bringing the cosponsor total up to 11If signed into law, the Social Security Fairness Act would repeal the government pension offset (GPO) and the windfall elimination provision (WEP) of the Social Security Act. .Now, the government of Canada is banning drug manufacturers and distributors from shipping any Canadian drugs that might be at risk of shortage to the United States. .This is precisely what happened to Notch Babies. In 1977, Congress did not have the same benefit of computer software that so quickly does the projections and estimates that we have today. But even if Congress had developed examples illustrating benefit differentials among different categories of receipients "they would not have shown as great differentials as actually developed," said a paper written by James W. Kelly and Joseph R. Humphreys, that appeared in the 1994 report of The Social Security Notch Commission. Some reductions of 10% to 14% would have been anticipated at the time, but because inflation grew much more quickly than estimated, and wages grew much more slowly, benefits were reduced 13% — 30% for Notch Babies under actual conditions. … Continued

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. ."The bill has been fiercely opposed by Republicans and the branded pharmaceutical industry, which would likely lose revenue if the bill passed, leading to 40 fewer new drugs coming to the market in the U.S. over the next two decades, according to the CBO estimate. .For progress updates or for more information about these and other bills that would strengthen Social Security and Medicare programs, visit the our website at , follow TSCL on Twitter or Facebook. .The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) shares Senator Nelson's concerns, and we are hopeful that Congress will take action in the near future to ensure lower out-of-pocket spending for Medicare beneficiaries. In the weeks ahead, we will continue to monitor the confirmation of Congressman Price, and we post updates here in the Legislative News section of our website. .In addition to congressional committee work in the 116th Congress, several new bills have been introduced that would reduce prescription drug costs. Several of them – including the following three – have already won bipartisan support in the new Congress. .The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for next year is likely to be the highest seen by retirees since 198Based on the most recent CPI data through August, I estimate that the COLA will increase Social Security benefits by 6%-6.1% in 202This would be the highest increase that I've forecast. Your Social Security Benefits Buying Less , editor .As we foresaw last week, Congress was not able to finish its work by the end of the day last Friday and had to pass two continuing resolutions (CR) in order to give themselves more time. The current CR runs through next Monday, the 28th. .The news came from preliminary findings from Oxford University, a co-developer of the vaccine. The research could also bring scientists closer to an answer to one of the big questions about the vaccination drive: Will the vaccines curb the spread of the coronavirus? .The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently issued a cost estimate citing the Joint Committee on Taxation's estimates of the cost for Social Security of about 6 billion in reduced SS revenues between 2020 -2021, increased revenues from repayments of 9 billion between 2022-2023, and about billion in higher outlays which would be due to administrative and debt costs. The CBO assumes that some companies will go out of business and would be unable to repay deferred taxes — about billion in Social Security revenues. The CBO warned that uncertainties its estimate of the CARES Act are high, and that actual outcomes could vary significantly.