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  • Social Security Medicare Questions March 2012

    The online survey, taken by 401 participants, was conducted in June and early July 2020. Here are some key findings: .Three Bills Gain Cosponsors .About 30 percent of the "other than legal " immigrants who were living in the U.S., and age 62 in 2000, would be eligible to receive retiree benefits. … Continued

  • What Would Food Cost Today If Prices Increased As Fast As Medicare

    As we have previously written, there is a bill that has passed out of the Senate Finance Committee called the Grassley-Wyden bill but Senator McConnell also refuses to bring that bill to the floor for consideration. The Grassley-Wyden bill is co-sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, Ron Wyden (D-OR). .Congress did not receive any automatic pay adjustment this year. With so many Americans (including seniors) suffering from long-term financial set backs, and so many workers out of jobs, lawmakers wisely opted to forego a raise. They last received a pay raise in January 200At the time their salary was increased 2.8% to 4,000 from 9,300. While the recession was taking a bite out of Americans' income, the pay of Members of Congress grew by ,800 from the time the recession began at the end of December 2007 through 2009, according to the Congressional Research Service. Over the decade 2000 through 2009, Congress gave themselves a total of 9 pay hikes, raising their salaries a total of ,300 from 6,700 in 1999 to the 4,000 that they receive in 201Legislation passed in 1989 established the current formula used to automatically adjust the Congressional pay increase that they refer to as a "cost-of-living adjustment" (COLA). .Please join us in our efforts by signing our Social Security Fairness petition to Congress, or by calling your elected officials and asking them to support CPI-E legislation. … Continued

Could you tell me the advantages and disadvantages of life insurance once we start Social Security? Doesn't Social Security pay widow's benefits? Do we really need life insurance if we have a (401)k and IRA savings? .The number of employees at your company determines whether you must enroll at age 65, or whether you can delay, and keep your employer insurance. Because you work for a company with fewer than 20 employees, Medicare pays first once you turn 6That means, if you miss your initial enrollment deadline, you would not be able to use your former employer coverage, even if you and your employer continued to pay the premiums. People who work for companies with more than 20 employees may delay enrollment and keep their current coverage as long as they meet certain rules. .Compare your drug and health plan options NOW during the Medicare Open Enrollment period before it ends on December 7th. Does your current drug plan even cover your expensive new prescription? If not, you need to check your other options. Chances are another plan will. Use the Drug and Health Plan Finder at www.Medicare.gov. Make sure you carefully enter every prescription drug you take in order to get a custom comparison of your best drug plan choices. Costs can vary by hundreds, even thousands, of dollars, and you may be very surprised by the savings from switching to a better plan. .Virtually all of the changes tend to show inflation as growing more slowly. Independent economist John Williams believes that the combined effect understates the measured rate of inflation by an astonishing 7 percentage points. One of the clearest illustrations of the impact of a major change is seen in the following chart of COLAs between 1976 and 1987. .Despite the coronavirus emergency, TSCL is continuing its fight for you to protect your Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits. We have had to make some adjustments in the way we carry on our work, but we have not, and will not stop our work on your behalf. ."This year is particularly difficult to forecast with certainty," Johnson says. "The inflation patterns, caused in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were unprecedented in my experience," she says. .Leading GOP plans impose broad spending reductions, would overhaul Medicare and cut Medicaid, while President Obama and Democrats are insisting tax increases are required, particularly on people with higher incomes over 0,000. Respondents to TSCL's Seniors Survey also tended to be more divided when asked whether they "strongly agreed" that the budget deficit should be reduced by cutting discretionary spending, or by closing tax loop holes and small revenue increases. However, when those in the middle, who "agree somewhat," are counted, a majority, 74%, agree that the budget deficit should be reduced by a fair balance of both discretionary spending cuts and modest revenue increases. .The report continues, "Two House panels last week approved legislation adding vision, hearing and dental coverage to Medicare. Dental is by far the most expensive and complicated of the three to roll out: the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office previously estimated that such coverage would cost 8 billion over 10 years, compared with billion for vision and billion for hearing coverage. .As part of our continuing efforts to find ways to lower the costs of prescription drugs, TSCL supports the idea that people should ask their doctors if taking a generic is available and appropriate for their specific ailment.