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  • Enhancing Social Security Statement Submitted To Ways And Means Subcommittee

    Legislation to Control Drug Prices Possible This Year? .What can you do? .Higher long-term costs for Social Security and Medicare: According to the CBO, people approved for work authorization and Social Security numbers, through policies like Obama's executive action, would be eligible to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits on the basis of their work history. Neither program requires citizenship in order to file a claim. While taxes flowing into the program are estimated to boost the programs in the short term, the CBO noted that periods of unauthorized employment count toward eligibility for Social Security if individuals receive authorization to work. According to the CBO,"The ability or inability of a formerly unauthorized worker to apply those employment periods to future benefits would affect federal outlays for the program. In addition… people who previously paid Social Security taxes under a stolen or fake Social Security number might be able to claim benefits in the future…" … Continued

  • Congressional Corner By Representative Fred Upton Mi 6 Feed

    During the most recent years for which data are available (2000-2004), the total number of mismatched wage reports jumped from 217 million at the end of 1999 to 264 million by 2004, an average of more than 9.3 million per year—82% higher than during the 1990's and more than double the rate of the 1980's. .While more than 47 million citizens of the United States are Medicare beneficiaries, each day 10,000 newly eligible citizens enroll in the Medicare program. And, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund — the fund that pays the Medicare bills — is projected to become exhausted in 202On top of this, the Department of Justice estimates that billion is lost each year from fraud in the Medicare program. .Drug Discount Cards … Continued

Upon introducing his bill, Congressman Duncan said, "Lower energy prices have pulled down the overall official inflation rate based off of the CPI-W, which measures spending habits of young, urban workers. But seniors don't spend and consume in the same way as working Americans. It's time to finally create an accurate inflation rate just for seniors." .You can gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19. .Back in April, President Trump picked out a single computer model of coronavirus spread to use for guidance about the coronavirus. It turns out that that model initially had rosier estimates than others, and it projected many fewer Covid-19 deaths. .Medicare first began offering beneficiaries the chance to enroll in private Medicare HMOs' in the mid 1980's. That program was absorbed and expanded under the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, creating Medicare+Choice. To cut federal spending on Medicare, the Balanced Budget Act set payments to the private plans at 5% below the fee-for-service rates of traditional Medicare. But by 1999, Medicare+Choice plans were not renewing their contracts with Medicare and there was a widespread exodus, leaving more than 2 million seniors scrambling to find other coverage. .Last week White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows announced that President Trump would soon be signing three executive orders regarding prescription drug prices. While he did not provide any further information the Washington Post published an article about what one of the orders is likely to be. .TSCL Endorses Social Security Administration Fairness Act .The TSCL Board of Trustees and staff are all dedicated to helping seniors. The following services provided by TSCL are considered primary and essential to the betterment of the quality of life of our nation's senior citizens: .Foster testified before our committee that changes included in the health care law will cut funding for hospitals, skilled nursing homes, diagnostic labs and many other services by more than half the levels under prior law. In addition, future Medicare payments will be considerably below the current relative level. These rates would cause a significant number of providers to leave the market. .Furthermore, this hurricane season is predicted to be a very bad one and money taken from FEMA for unemployment payments may be needed to deal with the destruction caused by the storms. What is more, the California fire season appears to be underway and federal funds are often used for relief efforts with those.