News

  • Legislative Update For Week Ending July 13 2012

    Repurpose "heirlooms in time." If you have boxes of "almost antiques" hidden away in antiques or basements pick out a few to repurpose for a second time around. Restring those old broken beads, cut apart shrunken felted sweaters and sew into new tote bags for the market. Drill holes in into old loose-leaf tea cans and plant some thyme, rosemary or a small parsley plant for a sunny windowsill. A great place to get inspiration is www.Pintrest.com. .If signed into law, the Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from dropping physicians from their networks during the middle of the year, and it would require them to finalize their networks sixty days prior to the start of the open enrollment period. .The plan would reform the tax code by consolidating the six existing brackets into three, and by setting the corporate tax rate at an even 28 percent. It would also make some major modifications to Medicare, including a repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate for physician payments, and a strengthening of the controversial Independent Payment Advisory Board. The proposal also includes a plan to restore Social Security to 75-year solvency by raising the retirement age, increasing the taxable maximum wage cap, and adopting a Chained Consumer Price Index, among other things. … Continued

  • Video Out Of Cola

    New regulatory threats, some at the urging of the pharmaceutical industry, could make it impossible for seniors to purchase certain products like vitamins and minerals without a prescription. It may sound outrageous, but seniors could soon be limited in their access to things as simple as protein shakes, vegetable juice and even herbal hand lotion without a prescription. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently began imposing new regulations on products used in "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" (CAM). TSCL is concerned the expensive federal regulations will restrict seniors' access to commonly available items and drive up costs for those that remain on the market. .TSCL enthusiastically supports H.R. 1030 and H.R. 3118, and we were pleased to see support grow for both of them this week. .Do you know what the poverty line is? It's ,880. Who could live on that? … Continued

Last year Americans were told that one of the ways to prevent being infected with Covid-19 is to wash hands frequently and for at least 20 seconds, and if that was not possible, use hand sanitizer. That resulted in a run on hand sanitizers and for awhile they were difficult to find. .Require Medicare beneficiaries to pay a higher portion of the Part B premium. Premiums for Part B cover physician and hospital outpatient services. The premiums of most seniors, those with incomes under ,000, equal 25 percent of Medicare's total cost of services, and the federal government covers the other 75 percent of the cost. This proposal would require seniors to pay 35 percent instead - like higher-income seniors do now. The 2010 Medicare Trustee report estimates that Part B premiums at the 35% level would be 9.30 per month in 2012. .This year, more than 50 percent of Social Security beneficiaries paid taxes on their benefits, even though many of them only made little more than twice the federal poverty level in income. Do you believe this is fair and, if not, what should be done about it? .In the weeks ahead, TSCL will keep a close eye on the issue, and we will advocate for solutions that will improve access without jeopardizing online security. For progress updates, visit the Legislative News section of our website or follow us on Twitter. .The proposal to switch to the chained CPI has come up numerous times during past budget negotiations over lifting the federal debt limit. Most recently the proposal appeared last December in a 2016 House bill that would reform Social Security, and in an alternate fiscal year 2017 budget proposed by the Republican Study Committee. The proposal remains a key provision of debt reduction plans, because so many federal benefit programs and the tax code are adjusted using the CPI. The CPI-U has recently been proposed to index Medicaid payments in the Senate health bill. Economists have estimated that adopting the chained CPI would cut Social Security by 0 billion over ten years. .A California physician ordered 115 Schedule II drugs (the class at highest risk for addiction) for just one beneficiary in 200Medicare paid 5,711. .During the most recent years for which data are available (2000-2004), the total number of mismatched wage reports jumped from 217 million at the end of 1999 to 264 million by 2004, an average of more than 9.3 million per year—82% higher than during the 1990's and more than double the rate of the 1980's. .This week, lawmakers in the Senate continued working on plans to reform the healthcare system. In addition, The Senior Citizens League saw five key bills gain new cosponsors in the House. .Get quotes from 5 to 10 highly-rated insurance companies. Make sure you are getting apples–to–apples comparisons for the same type of annuity.