News

  • Legislative Update Week Ending August 10 2018

    Ultimately, seniors aren't just a class of individuals who are a certain age — they are our mothers and fathers, grandparents, teachers, pastors, and public servants. They are each of us, either today or tomorrow. As a nation, it is incumbent upon us to prioritize safeguarding the futures of our senior citizens and addressing some of the obstacles to saving that exist both in our system and in our society. It is not just "their" future, it is our future. We're in this together. Let's secure our futures. .TSCL's Endorsement Sought for Social Security Bill .Senate Committee Discusses SGR Alternatives … Continued

  • Category Issues Cola Faqs

    This year's Trustees Reports show that both programs face modest financial challenges that can be addressed by Congress with minor changes. The Senior Citizens League supports the passage of legislation like the Social Security 2100 Act or the Social Security Expansion Act, both of which would strengthen the Social Security program's finances responsibly, without cutting benefits for current or future retirees. In addition, we hope Congress will pass legislation to bring down prescription drug costs in the Medicare program. Requiring Part D drug price negotiation would save billions of dollars for both the federal government and Medicare beneficiaries. .Retirees' budgets take a beating when prescription drug prices rise faster than the annual cost – of – living adjustments (COLAs). But new legislation moving in the Senate would address that problem. The drug bill would require drug manufacturers to pay rebates when prices rise faster than inflation. Lobbying groups for drug manufacturers don't like the idea. .However, there is no denying that the past financial crisis and the ensuing recession coupled with the increasing number of participants entering retirement has taken a toll on the Social Security and Medicare Part A trust funds. In fact, the 2013 Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees annual reports found that the Social Security's retirement Trust Fund will be exhausted by 2033 and the Medicare's Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will become insolvent by 202I believe in maintaining the strength of these programs and in order to protect future surpluses of these trust funds, Congress must first enact meaningful reforms to ensure they remain for current and future generations of beneficiaries. … Continued

The CBO recently estimated that the two options with the biggest potential for reducing government spending on Medicare in the next ten years include raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67, and increasing the portion of the basic Part B premium that seniors pay from 25% of the cost to 35%. The latter proposal would increase this year's basic monthly Part B premium — currently 4.90 — by about per month. .The additional coronavirus emergency legislation is likely to crowd out many other items that were once on the Congressional priority lists for the summer. As a result, the list of other "must pass" legislation is increasingly small, with priority being given to bills to fund the federal government and renew Pentagon programs. .Spousal and survivor strategies also are important. One example is file-and-suspend, which allows a spouse to claim a spousal benefit while the individual defers claiming. Another is "claim now, claim more later," where the high earner in a married couple claims a spousal benefit based on the lower earning spouse's record, while delaying his or her own retired worker benefit. The idea is to generate higher benefits both for the individual as well as higher survivor benefits for widows. .Initial Coverage Period: During this stage of coverage you pay a co-pay or co-insurance of 25% of the cost of covered drugs, and the plan pays 75%, up to a total of ,005 (beneficiary) and ,015 (plan). This includes any applicable deductible. Your plan's full retail drug cost, not your co-pay, is what counts toward entering the coverage gap. Your co-pays or True Out-of-Pocket costs (TrOOP) count toward exiting the coverage gap and qualifying for catastrophic coverage. .It accelerated the closing of the "doughnut hole." Under prior law, the Medicare Part D coverage gap or "doughnut hole" was set to close in 2020. The Bipartisan Budget Act accelerated the closing of the gap so that it will occur one year earlier, in 201Instead of paying a coinsurance rate of 30% in the "doughnut hole," beneficiaries will pay 25%. And instead of brand-name drug manufacturers providing 50% discounts in the doughnut hole, they will begin providing 70% discounts. This means that more than one million Medicare Part D beneficiaries will pay less for their prescription drugs next year when they reach the gap in coverage. ., editor, and Terry Newell, President, Leadership for a Responsible Society .Finally, the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R.1205) from Congressman Rodney Davis (IL-13) gained ten new cosponsors this week, bringing the total up to 158 in the House. The bill, if adopted, would repeal two provisions of the Social Security Act that reduce the earned benefits of millions of state and local government employees each year. .Each year SSA receives hundreds of millions of employer reported W2s. When Social Security receives a name or SSN on a W-2 that does not match SSA's records, the wage report goes into the ESF while the SSA attempts to reconcile the discrepancy. In recent years the file has been growing at an unprecedented pace—the fastest since the inception of Social Security in 1937. .Their new estimate says that universal masking in the U.S. could save some 130,000 lives by the end of February.