News
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Americans Financial Worries Grow
TSCL is closely watching for the introduction of proposals to strengthen Social Security and Medicare benefits and program financing. While financing issues for both programs are daunting, we believe that funding for both can be strengthened without deep benefit cuts. "Increasing benefits for all" was a key platform plank for the majority of the Representatives in the House, roughly half the Senate, and, our President elect. In coming months, TSCL plans to hold the lawmakers accountable for how they plan to turn this promise into reality for older Americans. .Housing: (rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent rent, fuel oil, bedroom furniture) .On the other hand, Bloomberg News has reported that, "The White House is backing away from a plan to send 0 prescription drug discount cards to American seniors before Election Day after widespread criticism the effort could violate election laws. … Continued
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Best Ways Save Octobernovember 2014
My drug plan is offering a new mail order system. I normally fill my prescriptions at the pharmacy. Does this really save any money? What would I do if I need a prescription quickly? .The uncertainty of Senate passage of the new legislation to waive the cuts to Medicare comes about because of the 2010 Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act, which requires across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration, to "mandatory" programs if any new legislation increases the deficit. .TSCL supports legislation that would get rid of the taxable wage cap and require all workers to pay their fair share into Social Security. … Continued
I hate that we're placing seniors in no-win situations, and that's why I've re-introduced My Seniors' Security Act. It ensures that COLA increases aren't just eaten up by rising health care costs and it recalculates COLAs completely. Specifically, my act would create a ‘circuit breaker' of sorts, so seniors never lose more than 30% of their COLA to Medicare premiums. .Oxford's study, however, found that the vaccine not only prevented severe disease but appeared to cut transmission of the virus by two-thirds. The study has not been peer-reviewed yet. .He announced that he would meet with the drug companies to discuss his plan, but top company executives subsequently refused to meet with him. The drug companies did develop their own proposal but it was rejected by the President. .Providing help in emergencies, such as utility shutoffs, and .Senate Aging Committee Holds Hearing .Payroll taxes, and the taxes that people pay on a portion of their Social Security benefits, are two major sources of program funding. The Social Security Trust Fund also receives interest payments from the U.S. Treasury for the money that the federal government has borrowed when the program was in surplus. In fact, the .One glitch that trapped working seniors during the 2010 tax season involved the 0 economic stimulus payment beneficiaries received if they were getting Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), railroad retirement or veterans' disability compensation. The 0 payment reduced the Making Work Pay Tax Credit that working seniors could claim to a maximum of 0 (individual) or 0 (joint). The IRS withholding tables that employers used in 2009 and 2010, however, did not adjust for those payments. Compounding the problems for seniors, the problematic IRS withholding tables also allowed reduced withholdings for pensions — even though pension income was not even eligible for the credit. .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. .But when hold harmless is triggered more widely than usual, as we expect to be the case in 2021, there is no provision of law with which to finance the unpaid portion of Medicare Part B premium increases of the roughly 43 million who are protected by the provision. In the past, Congress has chosen to allow this cost burden to shift to the 30 percent of beneficiaries who are not held harmless. Because the cost is spread over far fewer people, instead of all beneficiaries, those who are not protected by hold harmless pay a far larger share of the costs, thus the huge Part B premium jumps.
