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  • Medicare The Senior Citizens League

    TSCL's research has consistently found that Medicare Part B premiums rank as one of the fastest growing senior costs. Yet Medicare premium costs are not included in the measure currently used to determine the annual COLA — one major reason why COLAs do such a poor job of keeping up with rising healthcare costs. TSCL continues to lobby for a more fair and accurate COLA and supports legislation that would use a seniors' index — like the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E) — to determine the annual boost. .Provide dog or cat boarding. If experienced and good at handling dogs and cats, consider giving vouchers for pet sitting services to family or friends who may be traveling. Choose the pets that you know and get along with, consider where the animals will stay, and how well the visiting dog or cat will get along with your animals. .This is no rumor — it's a fact. In 2010 the IRS paid illegal immigrants .2 billion in the child tax refunds. The original version of the video you saw, from WTHR TV in Indiana, appears to be based on a report issued over a year ago by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The report says that the number of tax returns filed by illegal immigrants, as well as the amount claimed in Additional Child Tax Credits, has been growing rapidly and warns "the risk of fraud for these types of claims is significant." The video featured a whistleblower tax consultant who says that in many of the returns he has seen, undocumented workers are claiming the tax credit for kids who live in Mexico. … Continued

  • Legislative Update Week Ending June 5 2015

    This week, Members of Congress returned to Washington following a two-week recess and quickly began working on legislation to prevent a government shutdown. In addition, House Republicans revived the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which would repeal and replace most of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) if adopted. Finally, one House Subcommittee met to discuss fraud prevention within the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program. .Would the money spent on life insurance premiums be better invested in an annuity or other investment? Some types of life insurance can be cost prohibitive. Your best investment is to get unbiased advice from a fee-only certified financial professional who does not get a commission from selling life insurance policies, before dumping your life insurance, or taking out any new policies. .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

First, re-shop your Medicare prescription drug coverage every fall during Open Enrollment season -- and the same goes for Medicare Advantage if you're in one of these plans. Insurance companies often change their offerings year-to-year in ways that can increase drug costs by hundreds of dollars, or make it more difficult to get certain drugs. At the same time, your drug needs may have changed since the last plan selection period in ways that make a plan less beneficial for you. .Airlines frequently note that commercial planes are equipped with HEPA filters, the Centers for Disease Control-recommended air filters used in hospital isolation rooms. HEPA filters capture 99.97% of airborne particles and substantially reduce the risk of viral spread. In addition, the air in plane cabins is completely changed over 10 to 12 times per hour, raising the air quality above that of a normal building. .Look, nobody gets wealthy off of Social Security. It's a subsistence level program. .Extremely low cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) not only affect Social Security benefits, the 0.3% COLA also affects the amount of Medicare Part B premium people will pay in 201When no, or a very low, COLA occurs, a provision of law known as "hold harmless" is triggered. Under the provision, when an individual's Social Security COLA is insufficient to cover the increase in the individual's Medicare Part B premium, the Part B premium is adjusted so that the Social Security benefit isn't reduced from one year to the next. .To help you sort things out, TSCL strongly recommends that you get free one-on-one Medicare counseling through your state health insurance assistance program (SHIP). Many of the programs operate through area agencies on aging, local departments of senior services or senior centers. You can also get more information online at www.Medicare.gov or call 1-800-Medicare ( 7). .The nation's pharmaceutical industry has pushed back against the potential order, arguing that the United States should not shut itself off from a global supply chain. .This year, I am currently gathering support for the Medicare Advantage Quality Payment Relief Act, which would require the HHS Secretary to take Medicare Advantage Quality Incentive payments out of the calculation of the Medicare Advantage benchmark cap. This will allow high performing plans to receive the quality payments that they rightfully earned and to use those payments to improve beneficiary care. .This does not mean you should stop using hand sanitizers when you cannot thoroughly wash your hands. It just means you would be wise to throw out any of the above listed hand sanitizers if you have them. .If adopted, the Social Security Administration Fairness Act would accomplish the following: