News

  • Best Ways Save November 2018

    If the Social Security Administration announces a 1.3% COLA next month, an emergency COLA of 2.5% instead would make a big difference to your income over the next ten years and would also prevent Medicare Part B premiums from spiking any higher than they are already likely to go. .This is precisely what happened to Notch Babies. In 1977, Congress did not have the same benefit of computer software that so quickly does the projections and estimates that we have today. But even if Congress had developed examples illustrating benefit differentials among different categories of receipients "they would not have shown as great differentials as actually developed," said a paper written by James W. Kelly and Joseph R. Humphreys, that appeared in the 1994 report of The Social Security Notch Commission. Some reductions of 10% to 14% would have been anticipated at the time, but because inflation grew much more quickly than estimated, and wages grew much more slowly, benefits were reduced 13% — 30% for Notch Babies under actual conditions. .TSCL's Board of Trustees Visits Capitol Hill … Continued

  • Legislative Update Week Ending June 29 2018

    This week, Members of Congress remained in their home states and districts to prepare for the upcoming election, and The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) saw support grow for one key bill. .'It´s not clear why the administration hasn't made a bigger push to line up votes to get a bill through the Senate and a deal with Congress, given strong public support to lower drug costs,' said Tricia Neuman, a Medicare expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. .The temporary funding measure negotiated this week is expected to buy time for President-elect Donald Trump and members of the 115th Congress to negotiate a broad funding bill that will likely include language to fast-track the Affordable Care Act's repeal. In the months ahead, TSCL's legislative team will be following these discussions closely, and we will continue to advocate for legislation that would reduce any negative effects on beneficiaries of the Medicare program. Visit the Legislative News section of our website for updates. … Continued

Support Grows for Key Bill .The Senior Citizens League believes Congress can prevent the triggering of the Social Security hold harmless provision and eliminate spiking Medicare premiums entirely by providing an adequate COLA. This includes providing an emergency COLA or boost for 2021. .Medicare's Trustees reported in April that the Part A Trust Fund, which covers hospital insurance and inpatient care, would run out of money by 202That estimate, however, does not factor in the impact of the coronavirus on the program. New estimates are coming in that the pandemic could cause the Part A Trust Fund to become insolvent much sooner. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a group of nonpartisan budget experts focused on fiscal policy, estimates that the pandemic will cause Medicare Part A to run low in 2023 or 2024 —as little as two to three years from now. .Senate investigators recently explored one such astonishing case. They took a closer look at a disability attorney and retired Social Security judge who practiced along the border area of Kentucky and West Virginia. Some 10 to 15 percent of the entire population of the area — about three times the national average — is on disability. .This study looks at 39 expenditures that are typical for people age 65 and up, comparing the growth in the prices of these goods and services to the growth in the annual COLAs. It includes cost increases in Medicare premiums and out of pocket costs that aren't tracked under the index currently used to calculate the COLA. .The rule would require drug companies to give Medicare beneficiaries rebates that now go to insurers and PBMs. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates it would increase taxpayer costs by 7 billion over 10 years. .Most analysts believe that switching to a more – stingy measure of inflation to determine annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) will form a key provision to larger government-wide deficit reduction legislation. The idea received the blessing of President Obama who offered the change last December during fiscal cliff negotiations and continues to float the idea as Congress works on the government's fiscal year 2014 legislation. .TSCL believes the drug problem could explode this year. Citing massive "sequester" budget and staff cuts, federal officials are set to scale back or drop investigations into Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse cases. The Department of Health and Human Services may lose a total of 400 staffers and the existing staff is stretched so thin that it was unable to investigate about 1,200 cases of Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse last year. .Our nation is in a hyper-partisan period as the November elections approach. In this environment it becomes tricky when reporting about issues that affect you and other TSCL supporters because the issues are so often intertwined with politics.