News

  • Benefit Bulletin February 2014

    Watch your mail for information from your current Medicare supplemental or Medicare Advantage, and drug plan insurers. Your insurers will send you notification of changes in coverage, such as premiums, deductible, and co-insurance or co-payment costs for 200Carefully review these documents and compare them with your costs in 200File these documents where you can easily refer to them because you will need to use them for comparison when comparing other insurance options. .Prices like these are not only unaffordable for most Medicare recipients, these costs also place pressure on Medicare's finances, since Medicare pays 80% of Part D costs during the catastrophic phase of coverage. Although drug plans vary significantly, the 2019 "standard Part D benefit" has a 5 deductible and a 25% co-insurance up to an initial coverage limit of ,820 in total drug costs. That includes both what consumers and their drug plans pay. Once total costs exceed that amount, beneficiaries hit the Part D "doughnut hole" or coverage gap. Under that stage of coverage, beneficiaries pay 25% coinsurance on the discounted price of brand name drugs, and 37% co-insurance for generics until they have spent a total out-of-pocket of ,100. At that point beneficiaries enter the catastrophic phase of coverage, but are still on the hook for 5% of the cost of their prescriptions. .Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has indicated he will not bring the bill up for a vote until he knows there are enough Republicans who support it so that it can pass. … Continued

  • The Two Medicare Fixes That Seniors Hate Most

    Of course, members of the subcommittee also spoke, including the opening remarks of the subcommittee chairman John Larson (D- Conn.). Here are a few of his comments: .A surviving beneficiary spouse is one who collects Social Security benefits not from their own account, but from the account of his or her deceased spouse. To find out more about Notch Reform benefits for surviving beneficiaries, click here: What Happens to Benefit Payments When Your Spouse is Deceased? .Report Says Drug Prices in U.S. Almost 3 Times Higher than Other Countries … Continued

A person with average Social Security benefits in 2000 received 6 per month, a figure that rose to ,166.30 by 201However, that individual would require a Social Security benefit of ,419.00 per month in 2015 just to maintain his or her 2000 buying power, the study found. .Deferred Action allows immigrants under the age of 33, who entered the country illegally as children, to request consideration of deferred action on deportation. In addition, the program provides temporary work authorization, and valid Social Security numbers. The work permits are good for two years and the Obama Administration recently announced they are taking applications for renewal. .The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide a case in June that could have far -reaching implications for Social Security and Medicare. The Obama Administration has asked the Supreme Court to reinstate its executive action plan on immigration. The plan would give temporary relief from deportation and work permits to almost 5 million unauthorized immigrants. Should the Supreme Court find in favor of President Obama, his Administration would have 7 months to implement the program before his term ends. .Two new pieces of legislation in addition to H.R.1565 (see above) have been introduced to stop these kinds of scams. .Since 1980, the BLS has manipulated the CPI several times so that it no longer measures price inflation. Rather, it measures an ever-changing "market basket" of goods that is adjusted as prices drop and increase. It assumes that shoppers will purchase chicken when steak becomes too expensive, or apples instead of oranges when their prices drop. This has resulted in a more slowly growing COLA for Social Security beneficiaries. Instead of allowing seniors to keep up with rising costs, today's COLA requires them to constantly adjust to lower standards of living. .Recently we heard from Susan Gross, a 66-year old retired office assistant living in Central Virginia, who spends most of her day caregiving. Her 46-year-old son. who is disabled from cerebral palsy, lives with her, as does her mother, who is now 9All three receive their healthcare coverage through Medicare. .Members of the House adjourned for a week-long recess on Monday, but budget talks continued for the lawmakers that sit on the bicameral conference committee. While many have reportedly been meeting behind closed doors, Sen. Bernard Sanders (VT) took his message public in a news conference that announced his opposition to including entitlement cuts in a budget package. He said this week, "On these issues, Congress is way out of touch. The American people do not want to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid." ."This year is particularly difficult to forecast with certainty," Johnson says. "The inflation patterns, caused in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were unprecedented in my experience," she says. .TSCL thanks those who donated, and remembers those who fought in World War II. Read one such remembrance, "My Friend Paris" contributed by TSCL member, John Seavers.