News

  • Legislative Update Week Ending March 6 2015

    Not necessarily. According to a new audit report by the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General, more than 26,000 beneficiaries receiving spousal benefits may be eligible for a higher retirement benefit based on their own earnings, but are not receiving them. Although the Social Security Administration sends notices to widows and widowers who may be eligible for a higher retirement benefit based on their own earnings at full retirement age, and age 70, it does not provide similar notices to spouses who may also be eligible for higher retirement benefits based on their own earnings. .Two Social Security Reforms That Seniors Strongly Support .Here's an example of how it might work: Let's say your husband was entitled to a benefit of ,400 or ,450 per month. Since he was at his full retirement age there are no reductions. You learn that your full retirement age benefit at age 66 would be about ,195, and by age 70 it grows to about ,640. In this case taking a reduced widow's benefit now and letting your own benefit grow due to the delayed retirement credit may potentially work as long as your earnings don't completely offset your benefits. … Continued

  • Legislative Update Week Ending December 12 2014

    Once the costs that both you and your drug plan have paid exceed the above limit, then you will pay 25% co-insurance for brand drugs in 2019, and your drug plan will pay 5%. There's a manufacturer discount of 70%. For generics, you will pay 37% and plans pay 63%. This phase of coverage — which is called the "doughnut hole" or coverage gap —lasts until you have a spent a total of ,100 out-of-pocket on prescription costs. Please note that what you pay in premiums does not count toward out-of-pocket costs. Once you have spent ,100, which counts the manufacturer discount portion of the drug cost in the doughnut hole, then you reach the Part D catastrophic threshold. Medicare pays 80%, plans pay 15% and enrollees pay the greater of either 5% of total drug costs or .40/.50 for each generic/brand-name drug respectively. .Lawmakers Approve Temporary Spending Bill .However, leaders in the House postponed the vote and the discussion grew complicated after President Obama made a last-minute request to include funding for the training of Syrian rebels in the CR. "This is substantive policy change … Of course I would rather pass a clean, simple CR," said Rep. Mike Rogers (MI-8), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, following the President's request. … Continued

According to a report in Bloomberg Government News, "Centrist Democrats in the House are pushing to shrink their party's health-care wish list to focus more on low-income Americans, a move backed by industry groups including dentists who say a narrower focus is better policy. .This week, two new cosponsors – Reps. Mike Burgess (TX-26) and Lamar Smith (TX-21) – signed on as cosponsors to the No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act (H.R. 1716). The cosponsor total is now up to thirty-one. .The toll free information number is 1-800-772-1213 and operates from 7 am to 7 pm, Monday through Friday. To report Social Security fraud, call 1-800-269-027Also, you can look at the Social Security Administration Web Site. www.ssa.gov .Because Medicare doesn't negotiate drug prices, there are huge variations in cost for the same drug between drug plans, and even between pharmacies in the same plan. The difference in drug prices between the lowest and highest costing plans and pharmacies can be in the hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars. The high cost of drugs are the single biggest reason that people don't fill a prescription! But the most frequent reason that a drug costs so much more in the highest costing plan is lack of coverage by the drug plan —the drug is not listed on the plan's formulary. Sometimes, the pharmacy is not in the plan's preferred "network", and even preferred pharmacies can have significantly higher costs. For example, the lowest cost plan for Sovaldi, a drug used to treat Hepatitis C, charges ,600 in co-insurance (for a one-year treatment). The highest cost drug plan charges 0,800, the full cost of the drug, because Sovaldi is not on the plan formulary. The lowest cost plan for Advair Diskus, which is used to control and prevent symptoms of pulmonary disease, charges a co-pay of .33 per month from a mail order pharmacy, or the highest cost plan charges 6.62 per month because the drug is not on the plan's formulary. .TSCL is calling on Congress to close this loophole, and endorses the "No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act of 2007" (H.R. 736), introduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher (CA). The legislation would close the loophole by excluding earnings of any wages for unauthorized work. ."The Congressional Budget Office said in 2019 that the bill would likely hamper some pharmaceutical development due to lower ‘potential global revenues' but predicted that ‘the effects of the new drug introductions from increased federal spending under the bill on biomedical research would be modest and would almost all occur more than 20 years in the future.' On the other hand, it estimated that the bill would save more than 0 billion in drug spending over the next decade." .Reduce the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that beneficiaries receive once they become eligible for benefits. .What you can do: To sign a petition, click here. .Four Things To Avoid When Shopping For Retirement Housing