News

  • Benefit Bulletin July 2018

    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. .Several lawmakers also expressed their concerns about rising prescription drug prices at Wednesday's hearing. When asked whether the administration would take action to assist seniors who fall into Medicare Part D's "doughnut hole," Congressman Price said: "It is imperative that we provide the greatest amount of opportunity for individual seniors to be able to gain access to the drugs that they need." Senator Bill Nelson (FL) expressed his dissatisfaction with that response, saying: "If I gave [seniors] that answer, I would get run out of the room." .More recently they have justified high prices by comparing them with the costs they would prevent. Expensive hepatitis C drugs, they say, avoid the need for a million liver transplant. No matter that the comparison being made is to the highly inflated costs of treating disease in American hospitals. … Continued

  • More Doctors Could Be On The Way To Underserved Areas Of The U S

    This week, lawmakers returned to Washington and quickly began working on legislation to stave off a government shutdown, which could occur on December 11th if Congress fails to reach a compromise. In addition, The Senior Citizens League saw two key bills gain support. .Despite tightening the law, Congress did not fix a policy loophole that would be inadvertently triggered with the passage of comprehensive immigration reform legislation. When determining entitlement for insured status (10 years), and in calculating the initial retirement benefit amount, the Social Security Administration uses all reported earnings from covered employment in the United States, even if the earnings were from illegal or "unauthorized" work. .We at TSCL are not doctors or scientists. But with all the different voices being heard about what the right thing is to do or not to do, what we do urge you to be is very cautious. It makes sense to us to listen to the trained professionals in medical and scientific fields as we deal with our current health care situation. … Continued

Comprehensive immigration reform has been topping the legislative agenda in Congress for months, but so far most policy wonks and lawmakers have kept quiet about the ways in which reform would affect Social Security. Millions would become eligible to collect Social Security benefits based on work done illegally, under invalid or fraudulent Social Security numbers. TSCL is concerned about the ethical implications of this, and we believe that it would put additional strains on the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. .If signed into law, this bill would repeal the windfall elimination provision (WEP) and establish a new formula to calculate benefits for those with non-covered earnings. The WEP currently affects more than one million seniors who collect Social Security benefits and have earned pensions from non-Social Security-covered employment. .At the time of writing this update on Friday morning, the vote had not yet occurred. It is expected to take place on Friday afternoon, before the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has a chance to evaluate the final version. It remains unclear whether or not the AHCA will gain the support needed to win passage. If adopted, the AHCA will move to the Senate, where its future remains even more uncertain. If it fails, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have said they will move on to other legislative priorities, like tax reform. .Enrollees in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans should take a careful look at changes in their health plan for 201These Medicare health plans have new leeway to offer new supplemental benefits. While some of the new benefits may be valuable to some families, other changes, which give plans greater leeway to "tier" the co-pay structure for healthcare providers, may mean higher out-of-pocket costs when non-preferred or out-of-network providers are used. .Legislation to Stop Medicare Cuts Passes in Senate .What tips do you have for job hunting seniors? .For this week, lawmakers in the House and Senate remained in their home states and districts for the final week before they return to Washington following the Labor Day holiday. .Medicare part B was not paid for by increasing taxes but is paid for by borrowing money. So were the tax cuts that the President supported, and Congress passed in 2017. .The gap between prices was even higher for brand-name drugs, with U.S. prices 3.44 times more than those in the other countries. Meanwhile, prices for generic drugs are slightly lower in the U.S. than in most other countries. Unbranded generic drugs account for 84% of drugs sold in the U.S. by volume, the researchers found, but only 12% of U.S. spending.