News

  • Feds Shut Down 1 2 Billion Medicare Scheme Finally

    Every other developed country has evolved schemes to set or negotiate prices, while balancing cost, efficacy and social good. The United States instead has let business calculations drive drug price tags, forcing us to accept and absorb ever higher costs. That feels particularly galling for treatments and vaccines against COVID-19, whose development and production is being subsidized and incentivized with billions in federal investment. .Mexican consulate officials are informing people about the availability of such benefits.Survivor claims are increasing due to recent violence in Mexico. .To remedy this problem, TSCL supports Social Security "caregiving credits." These credits would be applied to a worker's Social Security earnings record to make up for years when people took time out of their working careers, and earned little or zero income, because they were caring for children, spouses, or older family members. … Continued

  • Much Social Security Will Spend Medicare Costs

    According to TSCL estimates, benefits are now 13% lower this year than if inflation had remained the more typical 3% for retirees who have been receiving Social Security since 2009 when the low COLAs started. A Social Security benefit of ,000 in 2009 is about 2 per month lower today than if COLA had been the more typical 3%, with a total loss of about ,697 in Social Security benefit growth over the past seven years. Over the same period, however, actual senior costs have continued to climb. Some 72% of retirees who participated in TSCL's 2016 Senior Survey reported that their monthly expenses had gone up by more than in 2015, despite the lack of growth in inflation. ." ‘If it comes to getting my family members vaccinated, and all that's available is J&J or Novavax, I'd tell them to take it,' said Robert Hancock, president of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians." .With 1.2 million supporters, The Senior Citizens League is one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups. Its mission is to promote and assist members and supporters, to educate and alert senior citizens about their rights an … Continued

TSCL was pleased to see support grow for H.R. 1795 and H.R. 2305 this week, and we look forward to helping build additional support for them in the coming months. .On Wednesday, Congressmen Elijah Cummings (MD-7) and Peter Welch (VT) met with President Donald Trump to discuss the state of the prescription drug industry. At the meeting, they requested President Trump's support for TSCL-backed legislation called the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (H.R. 242, S. 41), which would require the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices on behalf of Medicare Part D beneficiaries. Currently, Medicare is prohibited from doing so despite the fact that other federal health programs are required to. .For more information on town hall meetings near you during the August recess, click HERE. For more sample town hall questions, read this month's Legislative Update HERE. .What is TSCL? .TSCL encourages its members and supporters to attend these events and to ask questions of their elected officials about important Social Security and Medicare issues, like the following four… ."Concern is high among older Americans that undocumented immigrants who illegally worked under fake, invalid, or fraudulent Social Security numbers may at some point receive benefits based on such work," says TSCL Chairman, Ed Cates. A survey conducted by TSCL, a nonpartisan seniors organization, found that 82% opposed the current government policy that allows Social Security to determine entitlement to Social Security benefits based on earnings from jobs worked without legal authorization. .In 2015, the Senate Finance Committee came up with a simpler explanation for high drug prices. After reviewing 20,000 pages of company documents, it found that Gilead Sciences had what the committee's ranking Democratic member, Ron Wyden of Oregon, called "a calculated scheme for pricing and marketing its hepatitis C drug based on one primary goal, maximizing revenue." .For this week, lawmakers in the House and Senate remained in their home states and districts to continue the month-long August recess. .The four stated that their proposal – The Congressional Health Care for Seniors Act – would "provide Medicare patients with the best healthcare in America," and that it would "forever protect seniors' interests by aligning them with self-interested politicians." But the plan is risky for two key reasons. First, it would eliminate Medicare completely, and second, it would do so beginning in 2014, affecting even current beneficiaries. Other proposals, including the plan released by House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (WI-1) in his fiscal 2013 budget, would offer traditional fee-for-service Medicare as an option to seniors, and would delay implementation to protect current enrollees from any drastic or sudden changes. In addition to phasing out traditional Medicare, The Congressional Health Care for Seniors Act would gradually increase the eligibility age to seventy, and it would increase means-testing measures so that wealthier seniors would pay a greater percentage of their healthcare costs.