News

  • Legislative Update Week Ending July 21 2017

    Two Key Bills Gain Support .Some lawmakers are advocating for paid leave legislation that would require new parents to trade their future Social Security retirement benefits for twelve weeks of parental leave. This would undermine the mission of the Social Security program, increase its insolvency, and permanently cut the retirement benefits of those who take paid leave. Do you think this is a responsible proposal? .Fraud, waste and abuse are costing taxpayers and seniors an estimated billion a year, but Medicare fails to recover overpayments about 80 percent of the time. The Inspector General recently said that of the 6,287,546 in overpayments identified through the 30-month period ending March 31, 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported collecting only ,168,50But it gets even worse. The OIG said that it could not verify that the ,168,502 had been collected as reported because CMS did not have an adequate system for documenting overpayment collections. … Continued

  • Legislative Update Week Ending September 22 2017

    43% support very gradually increasing the Social Security payroll tax rate paid by employers and employees. .When asked whether you prefer to get your Social Security benefits directly deposited electronically to bank accounts or received by mail, 9 percent of seniors still prefer receiving checks. .New regulatory threats, some at the urging of the pharmaceutical industry, could make it impossible for seniors to purchase certain products like vitamins and minerals without a prescription. It may sound outrageous, but seniors could soon be limited in their access to things as simple as protein shakes, vegetable juice and even herbal hand lotion without a prescription. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently began imposing new regulations on products used in "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" (CAM). TSCL is concerned the expensive federal regulations will restrict seniors' access to commonly available items and drive up costs for those that remain on the market. … Continued

The plan that Simpson and Bowles outlined this week includes 0 billion in federal health care spending cuts, including a number of Medicare modifications like raising the eligibility age, increasing means testing for high earners, and reducing payments to providers. Simpson and Bowles also recommended the adoption of the "chained" CPI for the calculation of Social Security cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). The two wrote in a joint statement this week: "This plan begins where the president and the Speaker left off. It's more health care than the Democrats would like, and more revenue that Republicans support. But in our view, it is the minimum size necessary to put the debt on a clear downward path." .Given the above story about how Medicare users pay so much more for drugs than Medicaid users, could this be the year we finally win? .Make no mistake: millions of American families and our entire economy depend on getting mature workers the right skills for today's jobs. We need them back at work, earning good salaries, investing in their retirement, mentoring young workers and driving our economy forward. .Why should seniors be saddled with the ripple effect of things they don't even buy? That just doesn't make sense. .Look, nobody gets wealthy off of Social Security. It's a subsistence level program. .The report attributed the rapid increase to "an aging population, rising health care costs, and an expansion of federal subsidies for health insurance." In 2039, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal healthcare programs are expected to cost approximately 14 percent of the economy, which is double the 7 percent average that has held steady over the past forty years. .What you can do: Public opinion can sway votes in Congress! Take TSCL's 2012 Senior Survey. TSCL will publicize the results and share your comments with elected lawmakers in our visits to Capitol Hill. .(Washington, DC) – A budget proposal to switch to an alternate consumer price index, for calculating the annual Social Security cost – of - living - adjustment (COLA) is a bad deal for older and disabled Americans, says The Senior Citizens League (TSCL). The proposed "chained" consumer price index (CPI) would grow even more slowly than the conventional one that is currently used to determine the annual COLA. ."The vast majority of prescription drugs [in the U.S.] are for generic, and there, the U.S. does pretty well," says Andrew Mulcahy, PhD, a senior policy researcher at RAND and the lead author of the report. "But for brand-name drugs, we pay much higher."