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  • Congressional Corner November 2017

    Social Security has a .8 trillion surplus, enough to pay full benefits for 18 years, but income inequality has hurt Social Security's finances by leaving most of the wealthiest Americans' earnings above the cutoff point for the payroll tax which funds it. A Wall Street CEO who makes million per year pays no more in payroll tax than someone earning 8,500. If we had the same level of economic equality we enjoyed in 1983, the retirement trust fund would have another .1 trillion in it today. .The decision on when to start benefits is complicated and you should get counseling. The Social Security Administration website has a great deal of information on survivor's benefits at www.socialsecurity.gov as well as contact numbers to reach counselors. For more information about working after starting benefits see How Work Affects Your Benefits Publication Number 05-10069. .Access to Medicare and Medicaid including community-based long-term care support and services and programs that make Medicare more affordable. … Continued

  • Best Ways To Save Two Million Seniors Missing Out On Help With Drug Costs

    The Senior Citizens League is proud to endorse these three bipartisan bills and, in the months ahead, we will urge lawmakers to sign them into law. For frequent progress updates on these bills and the work of the Senate Finance and House Oversight Committees, follow TSCL on Twitter or visit the Legislative News section of our website. Additionally, you can share your story about rising prescription drug prices with our team right here. .That is why we are letting you know that the American Medical Association said this week that neither doctors nor the general public should use coronavirus antibody tests to determine whether someone is protected from the pathogen. .Because the economic fluctuations were highly unusual and unforeseen, logic dictates that Congress could not have intended the benefits that Notch Babies actually received. The disparities in benefits under the actual conditions of double-digit inflation are illustrated in the following chart, which was not developed until 199Even if Congress had developed this chart in 1977, however, they would have seen benefit differences of only 10%-14% shown on the left-hand side of the chart. Instead, the effects of inflation are reflected by benefit differences of 13% to 30% shown on the right. In effect, the actual benefit reductions for many retirees were more than double what original projections would have been at the time. … Continued

As opposed to previous years, the Senate leaders want any legislation they have to pass out of the way by the end of May. That means any bill has to pass the Senate, then the Senate and House would have to negotiate and reach agreement on one bill before it could be sent to the President for his signature. .Increase the taxable maximum wages. Raise the maximum wages upon which Social Security is paid, currently 6,800. .By using reconciliation, it would mean there would have to billions of dollars cut from current spending programs, including Medicare. ."If Congress adopts the more slowly-growing ?chained? CPI to calculate COLAs, that would cut the growth in average benefits, about ,100 per month today, by about ,742 over a 25-year retirement," states Larry Hyland, Chairman of TSCL. The benefit reductions compound over time, hitting the oldest the hardest. "By the time age 62 retirees with average benefits today reach age 84, their monthly benefits would be about 8 lower than they would receive using the current COLA methodology," Hyland says. .The report continues, "Two House panels last week approved legislation adding vision, hearing and dental coverage to Medicare. Dental is by far the most expensive and complicated of the three to roll out: the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office previously estimated that such coverage would cost 8 billion over 10 years, compared with billion for vision and billion for hearing coverage. .Also last year, I introduced the Medicare Advantage Coverage Transparency Act which was ultimately passed with unanimous support and then signed into law by President Obama. Decision-making in Washington should be based on transparency. A truly representative legislature should foster a culture of openness, which is why this law now requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to offer Congress expanded information on Medicare Advantage enrollment each year based on zip code, congressional district, and state. The purpose of this additional data is to provide greater information to the public, to policymakers, and to the health care community so they may have the most up-to-date information when making decisions. .How Much Would Delaying Retirement After Full Retirement Age Increase My Benefit? .A few years later, under 2003 Medicare drug legislation, funding for private plans was significantly boosted and the program got rebranded as "Medicare Advantage." Enrollment grew steadily and rapidly ever since. But by 2009, government economists reported that the payments to the plans cost the federal government 14 percent more than the same services would have cost under traditional Medicare. .Survey participants also support making changes to modestly increase benefits by using a senior CPI, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), to determine the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA), and to provide a boost of about per month. TSCL is meeting with Members of Congress to enact these changes. With 73% of survey participants reporting that their household expenses in 2015 rose by more than a month, while average Social Security benefits are stuck around ,250 due to low or no COLAs, TSCL is making a strong case that older Americans need a raise!