News

  • Balanced Budget Amendment Affect Social Security Benefits

    Click here to add your name to a petition, learn how you can help, or take a poll. .At the time of writing this week's legislative update, lawmakers in the Senate had not yet voted on the CR, and a coalition of Democrats had vowed to block it unless Republicans agreed to include year-long funding for the health care benefits of coal miners. The House-passed package includes funding for only four months, and Members of Congress in that chamber left town shortly after its passage. .Although the President did not offer specific policy recommendations, he did renew his commitment to lowering prescription drugs costs. He said: "One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs. In many other countries, these drugs cost far less than what we pay in the United States. That is why I have directed my Administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one of our top priorities. Prices will come down." … Continued

  • H R 3588 Guaranteed 3 Cola Act

    I worked in a California city police department for 30 years and I'm now entitled to a pension. For the past 8 years, I've also paid into Social Security for. Q & 038; April/May 2020 How Much May I Earn in the Year I Turn Full Retirement Age? ."It's outrageous to say that COLAs overpay seniors and the disabled," Hyland says. "To the contrary, COLAs already grow too slowly to provide the protection to Social Security benefits they're intended to," he points out. .Both bills would stop a premium hike of nearly 50 percent that's scheduled to hit millions of beneficiaries in January. They would also prevent a deductible increase of nearly , from 7 to Most Medicare beneficiaries will not be affected by the increases due to the "hold harmless provision" that protects them in years when premium increases are large enough to reduce their monthly Social Security checks. Since seniors are expected to receive no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) next year, the premium rates for around 70 percent of beneficiaries will remain unchanged from this year's. … Continued

Spending Bill Dominates "Lame Duck" Session .Prescription Drug Re-Importation – Making safe, secure re-importation a reality. .A husband's death can mean enormous financial hardship for women. Under current law it generally means a big drop in Social Security income, going from two Social Security payments each month to just one. When the husband passes away, the widow gets a benefit that's 100% the amount the deceased spouse was entitled to, if higher than her own retirement benefit. For example, if the couple received a combined benefit of ,400 per month, and the husband's benefit is ,600, then the widow would just get the ,600 and lose her own 0 per month in benefits. .A seventeen-member conference committee comprised of Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate is currently working towards a long-term bipartisan deal to keep the federal government operating. Should they fail to reach a compromise before the looming deadline, it will shut down once again. .Five years after IPAB's creation, it still has no appointed members and, due to record-low growth in healthcare costs, it hasn't been triggered to make recommendations to Congress yet. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, says she doesn't expect it to be triggered until 201But hundreds of lawmakers have serious concerns about the prospect of the board since it would be comprised of unelected and unaccountable appointees. They are hoping to pass legislation that would do away with it by the end of this year. .There are two types of U.S. debt: debt held by the public, like U.S. savings bonds, and debt held by government accounts. The Social Security Trust Fund is the single biggest government account holding U.S. debt, with the federal government owing the Trust Fund about .8 trillion. Since 2010, the program has paid out more in benefits than it receives in cash revenues, requiring the U.S. treasury to borrow to pay the interest due on the non-marketable bonds or I.O.U.s held by the Trust Funds — money that is needed to pay the benefits of current beneficiaries. According to a recent TSCL poll, 95 percent of older voters say that money owed to the Social Security Trust Fund should be repaid in full. .As with the start of any new Congress, TSCL is encouraging Senators and Representatives to reintroduce and cosponsor key legislation for seniors, like the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act, the Strengthening Social Security Act, the Notch Fairness Act, and the No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act. In addition, with comprehensive Medicare and Social Security reform on the minds of many deficit hawks, TSCL is working diligently to prevent harmful cuts that would affect your benefits. .Fortunately, there are other bills in Congress that TSCL supports to lower the amount of money seniors must pay for their prescription drugs which we believe have a much better chance of passing and we will keep fighting for them. .So, before these invaluable vaccines hit the market, we should talk about an actual price. Otherwise, we will be stuck paying dearly for shots that the rest of the world will get for much less.