

News
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January 23 2021
Since 2000, COLAs have increased Social Security benefits a total of 55 percent, yet typical senior expenses through July 2021 grew 104.8%. The average Social Security benefit in 2000 was 6 per month. That benefit grew to ,262.40 by 2021 due to COLA increases. However, because retiree costs are rising at a far more rapid pace than the COLA, this study found that a Social Security benefit of ,671.20 per month (8.80 more) would be required just to maintain the same level of buying power that 6 had in 2000. .To date, no government agency has released any complete estimate of the potential cost of illegal earnings to the Social Security Trust Fund. The best indication of the potential cost is contained in the Social Security Administration's "earnings suspense file" (ESF). .TSCL acknowledges the fact that changes to programs like Social Security and Medicare will be necessary in the coming years, and we agree that changes should be made sooner rather than later to protect seniors from harsh benefit cuts. Our surveys show that seniors favor Social Security reform options that would require wealthier Americans to pay taxes on all of their earnings, and Medicare reform options that would better coordinate care and prioritize the prevention of fraud, waste, and abuse. … Continued
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Legislative Update For Week Ending December 7 2012
Julian Tang, an honorary associate professor in the Department of Respiratory Sciences at the University of Leicester in England, said he is aware of several clusters of infection related to air travel. However, it is challenging to prove that people have caught the virus on a flight. .Home care, though, is much cheaper, overall. The yearly average cost, per person, of a nursing home to Medicaid is ,000 compared with ,000 for home care workers, according to one expert. .Medicare has three Parts: A (hospital), B (doctors and hospital outpatient) and D (prescription drugs). Each has a deductible and each increases every year. In 2007 the Medicare deductibles (annually) are: … Continued
In addition to overlooking Medicare premiums, the CPI-W also doesn't accurately measure the portion of income that retirees and disabled Social Security recipients spend on Medicare. Spending for medical care in the CPI for younger adults represents about 6.5 percent of household budgets, but surveys by TSCL suggest that retirees routinely send more than twice that amount. .On Monday, lawmakers in the House revealed the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which would replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) if signed into law. Just two days later – before the Congressional Budget Office had a chance to evaluate the proposal – Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to advance the proposal. .Yet according Sara Zeff Geber, PhD, author of Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers, very few childless adults reside in assisted living or continuous care communities today. That's because it's the adult children, who are the primary caregivers, who help make the decision when mom and/or dad needs more care than can be safely provided at home. It's the adult children who assist with the tasks of helping parents shop for the right senior housing, help with the downsizing and moving, and assist with the complicated transaction of selling a parent's home and financing senior housing. .By Mike Watson, TSCL Legislative Assistant, .Sources: Hearing on Combating Waste, Fraud, and Abuse, Office of the Inspector General, Social Security Administration, January 24, 201"Levin, Conrad Introduce CUT Tax Loopholes Act," Senator Carl Levin, February 7, 2012. .The future of the AHCA remains uncertain in the House, and in the Senate, lawmakers have been even more cautious about its prospects. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (TX) said: "Once [House lawmakers] pass the bill, my assumption is, the Senate's going to take a look at it but not necessarily be rubber-stamping what they're proposing. I would anticipate that we'll do what we used to do all the time which is, the House will pass a bill, we'll pass a bill, and then we'll reconcile those in a conference committee." .No change to 401(k)s or IRAs: Prior to enactment, concerns were high that tax reform would restrict the amount of pretax contributions working people could make to workplace retirement accounts. Congress did not do this, and the tax rules affecting these accounts, for the most part, remain the same. .Obamacare is not the first government program in which major implementation glitches had disastrous consequences for large numbers of beneficiaries. In 1977 changes that Congress made to the Social Security benefit formula created a major inequity in benefits that cost retirees tens of thousands of dollars in Social Security benefits over their lifetimes. The seniors affected are among the oldest and most vulnerable today. Born during 1917 through 1926, and known as "Notch Babies," they received substantially lower benefits than other seniors close to them in age with almost identical work and earnings records. The name refers to the plunging "V" notch when benefits of Notch Babies are charted on a graph. .Although President Trump promised during his campaign not to touch Social Security, "it's unclear how he would view slowing the growth in Social Security benefits by this type of technical change," Johnson observes. "Make no mistake, no matter what sort of ‘improvement' lawmakers may try to call it, getting less money from Social Security is a cut," she states.