News

  • Social Security Medicare Questions August 2015

    A new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that undocumented immigrants who receive work authorization are eligible to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits on the basis of their work history. Under current law there's no citizenship requirement to receive benefits, but individuals must be lawfully present in the U.S. That will mean higher spending on Social Security and Medicare in the future, the CBO said. While the CBO said new payroll taxes would boost Social Security and Medicare's financial condition in the short term, in the long term federal spending would increase significantly as those people became eligible for benefits. .Now more than ever, we must fight to ensure that when older Americans retire they can look forward to a stable economic future and reliable, high-quality healthcare. During the devastating economic recession, older Americans saw their hard-earned savings dwindle, lost millions in diminished pension funds, and were laid off just a few years before retirement. Now, Congress must work past partisan gridlock to support seniors. During my time in Congress, I've fought for seniors by reaching across the aisle to protect landmark programs like Medicare and Social Security and introduced commonsense legislation that will strengthen the financial security of older Americans. .As part of the economic stimulus bill just passed by Congress those sharp cuts have been put on pause. … Continued

  • Legislative Update For Week Ending April 4 2014

    Other priorities in 2015 will include advocating for a more fair and accurate Social Security cost-of-living adjustment, monitoring the continued implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and protecting Medicare Advantage enrollees from harsh and unforeseen benefit cuts. .TSCL Announces Support for New Legislation .In fact, according to TSCL's annual survey of senior costs, Social Security benefits have lost more than one-third of their buying power since 2000 because COLAs underpay recipients. TSCL supports using the CPI-E to determine COLAs that better take into account the spending patterns of older people. For well over a decade, TSCL has lobbied Congress to make the COLA more fair and accurate. TSCL is mobilizing seniors nationwide to contact Members of Congress. … Continued

President Gives First State of the Union ."The Senior Citizens League Wants to Know: "How Much Will You Spend on Medicare?"" .Legislation before the House and Senate would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) so that public servants receive the Social Security benefits they have earned and deserve. Will you cosponsor the Social Security Fairness Act (S. 521, H.R. 141) when you return to Washington? .Upon introducing the Protecting Medicare Beneficiaries Act, Sen. Wyden said, "Today's fix will protect over 370,000 Oregonians and millions of seniors across the country from an abrupt and dramatic increase in Medicare costs. It is urgent that Congress take decisive action to ensure vulnerable Americans aren't harmed by this archaic policy." .Sources: Making Work Pay Credit Was Implemented As Intended, But Resulted in Many Taxpayers Owing Taxes With Returns," Treasury Inspector General For Tax Administration, November 1, 2010, Ref. No. 2011-41-002. .Since the start of CPI-E in 1983, the average difference between it and the CPI-W is roughly .25 percentage point per year. Sounds tiny but, like interest, it compounds over time. Had the CPI-E been used to determine COLAs since 2015, your benefit would be about 2% higher today. An average benefit of ,215 per month in 2015 will increase to ,298 per month in 2020. But had the CPI-E been used to calculate the COLAs, that benefit would have been per month more or ,324 in 2020. ."But the time is coming when the states and federal government will be under urgent pressure to cut Medicaid and Medicare costs," says TSCL Chairman, Larry Hyland. "TSCL is concerned that if states and the federal government don't design and implement the changes the right way, beneficiaries' may lose access to medically necessary care and quality." .However, there are several steps an importer would have to take to be certified to import the drugs and they are costly. If the current FDA rules are kept in place it could be that states would not see significant savings in the costs of drugs, or even enough savings to justify the cost of setting up such a program. .Why does decision making have to be so hard? How much time is the right amount to spend on thinking things over? Can you even name anyone who never made a bad decision? We can't either.