News

  • Take Action Feed

    The deal will likely move to the House and Senate for a vote before the Presidents Day recess begins. .Town Hall Question: Research indicates that seniors have already lost more than 30 percent of their purchasing power since 2000. What is your position on the adoption of the "chained" CPI for the calculation of Social Security COLAs? .The basic science that has allowed the small company to move so rapidly was developed with a huge prior infusion of federal money to come up with a treatment for diseases like Zika. … Continued

  • Legislative Update For Week Ending May 3 2019

    For more information see the Medicare publication, "Are You a Hospital Inpatient or Outpatient?" CMS Product No. 1143Get a copy online at www.Medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE ( 7). .According to the report, CMS has not expanded the recovery audit program to Medicare Advantage by the end of 2010 as was required by the Patient Protection Act. Recovery audits have been used for years in other Medicare programs to recover improper payments. TSCL believes Congress must provide stronger oversight to ensure that scarce Medicare dollars are spent appropriately and to prevent private insurers from boosting profits by gauging both taxpayers and older Americans. .Some policy analysts argue that the "chained" CPI is more accurate, but the Congressional Budget Office has stated that using that index has limitations. Unlike the conventional consumer price index in which final data from one month to the next is available in about two weeks, final data for the chained CPI isn't available until well over a year and a half. "That means preliminary estimates that are subject to error would have to be used for indexing," Johnson explains. … Continued

The loss of a job entitles each of you to a Special Enrollment Period (SEP), but the rules and deadlines will differ for each of you. Because your husband is under the age of 65, he should check options for coverage on the Health Insurance Marketplace (www.Healthcare.Gov). Because of your husband's job loss, your income may be lower and he may qualify for an advance premium tax credit subsidy that would lower the cost of premiums. .GOP Backs off "No New Taxes" Stance .If these cuts ever went into effect, it could mean tens of millions of seniors no longer have access to their doctors and essential healthcare services. This is unacceptable. For too long, Congress has failed to seriously tackle the issue of physician payment reform, and instead has kicked the can down the road with short-term fixes that have now created a long-term fiscal nightmare. This has been the absolute wrong approach for American seniors and our federal budget. And that is why I have been working hard to protect seniors' access to their doctors by putting forth a plan to fix this broken system once and for all. .28% Of Medicare Beneficiaries Hit Doughnut Hole In 2015 .Alzheimers and some Potentially Good News .Why raise the maximum? In 1993 the taxable maximum was eliminated for Medicare payroll taxes. Yet currently, workers who earn more than 3,700 pay no Social Security taxes at all on earnings over that amount. "That includes every Member of Congress and President Obama," notes TSCL Chairman Larry Hyland. The "tax max" increases annually by the growth in national average wages .The Senior Citizens League supports bipartisan legislation that would require Medicare to negotiate lower prices for Medicare Part D, would allow safe importation of prescription drugs from Canada and other countries where the same drugs are often sold for much less, and would ban "pay for delay" deals between drug manufacturers that keep cheaper generics off the market. To learn what you can do to help fight high drug costs, visit . .Legislators cannot effectively operate on their own without the input of those who elected them. After all, the Constitution guarantees "the right of the people to petition the government for redress of grievance," acknowledging that calling upon our elected representatives is a fundamental principle of our democracy. TSCL's grassroots petition campaign highlighted this freedom and successfully grabbed not just the ears, but the eyes and attention of Congress toward the concerns of millions of seniors nationwide. .Last week President Biden's administration unveiled its plan to lower prescription drug prices that includes a number of aggressive proposals but that are basically the same proposals that Democrats have pushed for years, many of which Democrats in Congress are currently working on to include in upcoming legislation. The plan would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, a longstanding pledge from Biden, Democratic lawmakers, and every Democratic presidential candidate in 2020. It also would limit yearly price increases, allow the importation of drugs from Canada, and place a cap on out-of-pocket spending for Medicare beneficiaries