News

  • Legislative Update Week Ending February 20 2015

    In a letter to the bill's sponsors, Ed Cates – Chairman of TSCL's Board of Trustees – wrote, "When family caregivers don't receive the support they need, they often must leave their jobs, take on significant debt, or move their loved ones out of their homes and into costly assisted living facilities. TSCL and its members believe the growing problem must be addressed as soon as possible." We look forward to working with the bill's sponsors in the months ahead to continue building support for the important bill. .Fixing this problem seems to be more complicated than passing a continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has made it known that no Republican Senators will support raising the debt ceiling and without Republican support Democrats will have to resort to a special procedure called "reconciliation" in order to pass it because of the Senate filibuster rule. In the past there has been partisan squabbling over raising the debt ceiling but when it came right down to it both sides ended up voting to raise it. We'll find out very soon whether that will happen this time. .What Was I Thinking? … Continued

  • Legislative Update For Week Ending November 23 2012

    Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com .The new cards will have unique, randomly-assigned numbers called a Medicare Beneficiary. Benefit Bulletin: June 2016 Can You Identify Medicare Fraud In This Story? .Currently, the two vaccines available are produced by Moderna and Pfizer. However, a vaccine from Johnson and Johnson could become available within the next few days. And there could be one or two more available in a few more weeks. … Continued

78% Of Older Voters Support Strengthening Social Security By Raising Payroll Taxes .If more than 12 months have passed, the plan should disenroll your mom, and her Special Enrollment Period should begin at the beginning of the twelfth month and continue through the end of the fourteenth month after the move. .The estimate of the COLA is updated every month, with the release of new CPI data, so our COLA estimates can change from month to month during the year. Based on the data through August we estimate that the 2022 COLA will be 6% to 6.1%. The actual COLA for 2022 will be announced October 13, 2021. .Other critics say that revising the government's purchasing rules will not provide a quick solution to the supply shortages of the current pandemic. "Making Buy American provisions tighter during the current crisis would likely do more harm than good," according to William Reinsch and Jack Caporal of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. .This week, four new cosponsors signed on to Congressman John Garamendi's (CA-3) bipartisan Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E) Act (H.R. 1251), which would base the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) on a more fair and adequate inflation index if adopted. The new cosponsors are Congressmen Marc Veasey (TX-33), Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (MP), Vincente Gonzalez (TX-15), and Andre Carson (IN-7). The cosponsor total for H.R. 1251 is now up to forty-three. .Judge Rules Hospitals Must Disclose Prices .He announced that he would meet with the drug companies to discuss his plan, but top company executives subsequently refused to meet with him. The drug companies did develop their own proposal but it was rejected by the President. .That said, the SSDI program paid .2 billion in benefits to ineligible people in FY2012 according to the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General. And skyrocketing enrollment is putting added financial strains on the program. Both the Social Security Trustees and the Congressional Budget Office have recently forecast that the SSDI trust fund will become fully depleted in three years. When that occurs, program revenues will only be sufficient to pay about 80% of benefits. Unless Congress takes action, severely disabled beneficiaries would face benefit cuts of 20%. .Two Courts Halt Rule Tying Certain Drug Prices to Other Countries