News
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Legislative Update For Week Ending January 10 2014
Medicare Reform – Protect beneficiaries from changes that would impose greater out-of-pocket costs to beneficiaries. .with less in the household budget. To learn more, visit . .TSCL strongly supports legislation like the Notch Fairness Act that would provide Notch babies with modest compensation, and we were pleased to see support grow this week. … Continued
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More Funding Sought For Home Health Care 2
We urge you to keep wearing a mask if you been doing so, and if you haven't, please start – for your own safety and the health and safety of those around you. .For many lawmakers and citizens, this news was disturbing but not surprising. This is exactly why Republicans are demanding that we stop raiding the current program and reform of the system for future generations. Doing nothing is not an option. The status quo will mean the end of Medicare as we know it. Yet instead of putting forth new ideas to reform the program and use the savings to shore up Medicare for future generations, Democrats transferred 0 billion out of Medicare to fund their latest entitlement program, the massive health care law. .In addition, early this week lawmakers in the Senate majority took the first steps towards a repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (WY) introduced a fifty-four-page budget resolution – S. Con. Res. 3 – on Tuesday that includes instructions for fast-tracking the law's repeal. The resolution instructs the four committees of jurisdiction – two in the House and two in the Senate – to draft repeal legislation before a January 27th deadline. It overcame its first hurdle on Wednesday when the Senate voted 51-48 to proceed. … Continued
Medigap plans by law are now barred from offering drug coverage, and beneficiaries need to add "drug only" coverage to their Medicare supplement. .Only one other time in recent years, in 2009 at the peak of Great Recession job losses, has the AWI ever gone negative. The 2009 AWI dipped by 1.51% and retirees who were born in 1949 were affected. Although the problem was known at the time, the reductions to benefits were considered small and Congress took no action to prevent those reductions. .The first few months of this year were spent encouraging lawmakers to re-introduce critical legislation. So far, TSCL's most vital bills have been re-introduced, including the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E) Act, the Notch Fairness Act, the Social Security Fairness Act, and the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act. More recently, TSCL's focus has shifted to building support for these and other bills, and already, many legislators have signed on to them as co-sponsors. .TSCL Endorses Two New House Bills .A Census Bureau poll of how households are handling their medical needs during Covid-related closures and stay-at-home orders found that millions are going without care. In the last four weeks to June 9 an estimated 87.7 million people across the nation delayed getting care, while nearly 71 million needed it for something unrelated to Covid-19, but did not get it, .On Monday, President Obama released his .8 trillion budget request for fiscal 2013, calling it "a blueprint for how we can rebuild an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded." While the proposal leaves Social Security as is, many Medicare beneficiaries – especially those considered "high earners" – would see major changes. .Sen. Bernard Sanders (VT) introduced S. 500 on March 7, 201It has since been referred to the Committee on Finance. .Yet, millions of your fellow Americans, receive below poverty level checks adding to the wealth disparity and further eroding the middle-class. .Drug Discount Cards
