News
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Legislative Update For The Week Ending August 26 2011
Obama Urges Lawmakers in the State of the Union Address .Yet here we are today facing another failure to pass legislation on time, which has happened year after year under McConnell. .The Senior Citizens League enthusiastically supports H.R. 3302 and H.R. 1114, and we will continue to advocate for them tirelessly in months ahead. For more information, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website. … Continued
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56 Of Social Security Households Pay Tax On Their Benefits Will You
Specialty-tier drugs are defined by Medicare, as those that cost more than 0 per month in 2019, and include drugs used to treat cancer, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis (MS), and rheumatoid arthritis. Even when Part D enrollees reach the Medicare Part D catastrophic coverage phase, when co-insurance drops to 5%, beneficiaries who take these drugs can continue to face thousands of dollars in annual out-of-pocket costs, according to the Kaiser study. The study found that annual out-of-pocket costs for specialty drugs in 2019 are expected to average ,994 across the 28 specialty-tier drugs that are covered by drug plans. .One of our purposes in visiting with those offices was to find out why they do not support the bill and to see if there is any hope that some compromise to the bill could be reached. The main reason they do not support the Grassley-Wyden bill is because it has a provision that they believe would, in essence, result in government price-setting of drug prices and would be a first step toward a one-payer (meaning government) health care system. Each office mentioned other bills that they might support but there is not one bill that the Republican majority is currently in favor of and that might have a chance to pass. It was also stated that because this is an election year there is a very short timeline for action to be taken. .The Neal bill was passed by the Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday of this week. It would ban surprise billing using an arbitration process favored by hospitals and specialty physician groups but opposed by insurers, employers and labor unions. Neal's legislation would send all the disputes that can't be settled between the parties to arbitration but require mediators to consider median contracted rates used by health plans, with the mediators prohibited from considering "usual and customary charges," also known as "billed charges." … Continued
The Fair COLA for Seniors Act of 2017 (H.R. 2896) gained two new cosponsors in Representative Zoe Lofgren (CA-19) and Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-01), which brings the total cosponsors up to two. If signed into law, H.R. 2896 would provide a mid-year COLA to Social Security beneficiaries of 3.9% to account for an insufficient increase in 2017, and it would apply the CPI-E to future Social Security COLAs. .Lower prescription drug prices is one of our top priorities and we will continue to fight for them as long as it takes, and for whatever actions it takes to reduce them. .A recent TSCL poll indicates that retirees are split between housing and healthcare costs as the hardest to cover. Forty percent of respondents said that housing, heat and utilities were hardest. Another 40% said healthcare and medications were hardest. Sixteen percent said nourishing food. Four percent said transportation was their most difficult cost. .The diagnostics are designed to pick up signs that the human immune system has successfully fought the novel infection, a step many scientists believe will confer some measure of immunity. The AMA said given the uncertainties surrounding the tests -- including about their accuracy -- medical and safety decisions should not be made based on those assumptions. .The agreement appears ambiguous on this issue, and TSCL has filed four Freedom of Information Act requests in order to obtain copies of estimates of the cost to Social Security. After receiving the first known copy of the agreement in December of 2006, which apparently had never been made public, even to Members of Congress, the battle to obtain key documents in federal court has continued for TSCL. According to the State Department, public disclosure of the withheld information would risk undermining U.S. efforts in important areas of U.S. foreign policy. TSCL rejects this and will ask the judge to look at documents to see if they have been properly withheld. Although current U.S. law forbids the payment of Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants, there are loopholes and exceptions. .The CMS rule change would also make it more difficult to qualify for nursing home and even home health care coverage after leaving the hospital. To qualify for nursing home coverage, one must spend three days as an inpatient. Outpatient stays do not qualify for Medicare coverage of nursing home stays. Without a qualified hospital inpatient stay, patients may even have trouble finding home health care agencies that would serve them due to Medicare's lower Part B reimbursement rates. .In 2016 there was no COLA at all, and in 2017 the COLA was just 0.3 percent. During that time a special provision of law known as "hold harmless" protected about 70 percent of Social Security recipients from reductions to their Social Security benefits due to increasing Medicare Part B premiums. .Drug companies and some patient groups have long criticized proposals like this last rule, saying it would reduce innovation and access to certain medications. In addition, drug makers are particularly leery of the approach since Democrats want to use it more broadly to allow Medicare to directly negotiate prices. .With so many grandparents becoming more involved in the day – to - day care of their grandchildren you may learn that you qualify for other programs that can reduce healthcare, food, and other expenses. We recommend that you take time to try the National Council on Aging's online "BenefitsCheckUp" screening tool to learn about benefit programs in your area.