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  • S 960 Protecting Preserving Social Security Act

    On Tuesday, Senators on the influential Finance Committee held a hearing titled "Examining the Proposed Medicare Part B Drug Demonstration." Dr. Patrick Conway testified before the full committee on the status of the controversial demonstration program, which was proposed by CMS earlier this year and has not yet been implemented. The program will test new payment strategies for hospitals and physicians who administer prescription drugs to Medicare beneficiaries receiving outpatient care. It is a new attempt by the Obama Administration to move away from a medical system that rewards volume of care and towards one that values high-quality care. .Medicare first began offering beneficiaries the chance to enroll in private Medicare HMOs' in the mid 1980's. That program was absorbed and expanded under the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, creating Medicare+Choice. To cut federal spending on Medicare, the Balanced Budget Act set payments to the private plans at 5% below the fee-for-service rates of traditional Medicare. But by 1999, Medicare+Choice plans were not renewing their contracts with Medicare and there was a widespread exodus, leaving more than 2 million seniors scrambling to find other coverage. .By Jessie Gibbons, Legislative Assistant … Continued

  • Q February March 2018

    The President believes tying drug prices in the U.S. to those in other countries will bring down the prices here. However, the effect of his order won't be seen for some time and will only cover certain prescription drugs. The executive order requires that the secretary of Health and Human Services immediately test a payment model for Medicare to pay "no more than the most-favored-nation price," meaning the lowest price paid in other developed countries, for specific "high-cost" prescription drugs and products. .In the months ahead, The Senior Citizens League will continue to work for enactment of this and other legislation that would strengthen and enhance Social Security benefits for current and future beneficiaries. For progress updates, follow The Senior Citizens League on Twitter and Facebook. .The program is not meant to pay for all your energy costs, and in many places only provides assistance for your main heating source. For example, if you heat with oil, your local program may approve delivery of only a specific amount of heating oil and that may only fill a portion of your fuel tank. The amount of help you get depends on where you live, your income, your energy costs and needs, and your family size, in addition to other factors such as your age. In addition, in many areas of the country, the program runs out of funding quickly and operates on a first come, first serve basis. … Continued

GOP Backs off "No New Taxes" Stance .Congress should change the law to apply the Social Security payroll tax to all earnings, instead of the first 2,800 of earnings, to strengthen program funding. — 72 percent support, 19 percent opposed, and 9 percent favored other types of revenue increases. .In response to the proposed changes, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA-12) said, "With their latest budget proposal, House Republicans have made their values very clear: strengthen the special interests, abandon seniors and hard-working families." TSCL agrees that adopting a premium-support model for the Medicare program would be a step in the wrong direction, and we oppose the Budget Committee's efforts to include it in next year's resolution. In the weeks and months ahead, we will continue to advocate against plans to privatize the Medicare program. ."Super Committee" Holds Second Hearing .Unlike the way Medicare negotiates costs for all other medical services and medical equipment, the program doesn't have the authority to negotiate drug prices. That leaves older U.S. consumers paying higher prices than people who get their medications through the VA Administration or state Medicaid programs. And because Medicare isn't negotiating on our behalf, there's no consistency in drug pricing between Part D drug plans either. Prices vary enormously, and new research for TSCL indicates millions of drug plan enrollees are getting gouged when they don't compare and switch to better plans. .This week, The Senior Citizens League saw support grow for three key bills that would strengthen and improve the Social Security and Medicare programs if adopted by Congress. .TSCL Goal of new Drug Pricing Legislation Left out of new House Bill .Second, six new cosponsors signed on to the Standardizing Electronic Prior Authorization for Safe Prescribing Act (H.R. 4841), bringing the total up to twenty-six cosponsors. The new cosponsors are: Representative Adam Schiff (CA-28), Representative Joe Kennedy (MA-4), Representative Greg Walden (OR-2), Representative Kevin Kramer (ND-1), Representative Dan Webster (FL-11), and Representative Don Bacon (NE-2). If adopted, H.R. 4841 would allow for and standardize electronic prior authorization for Medicare Part D beneficiaries. .According to the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) recent baseline data for the Social Security Trust Funds, Social Security is expected to receive about 7 billion in payroll tax revenues in 202The CBO further estimates that the Trust Fund would receive billion in revenues in 2021 from the taxation of Social Security benefits.