News

  • Legislative Update Week Ending September 9 2016

    First, one new cosponsor – Representative Ruben Gallego (AZ-7) – signed on to the Competitive DRUGS Act (H.R. 4117), bringing the total up to thirty-seven. If adopted, this bill would prohibit brand name pharmaceutical companies from paying generic drug companies to delay the introduction of their products to the market. Banning these anti-competitive "pay for delay" deals would lead to lower prescription drug prices for older Americans and other consumers. .When asked whether the waiting periods for disability and Medicare benefits should be eliminated, 67% of TSCL's poll participants support eliminating the waiting periods for both Social Security and Medicare. Only 18% supported keeping both waiting periods, 9% supported eliminating the 2-year wait for Medicare alone, and 5% supported eliminating the 5-month wait for Social Security alone. .Drug Discount Cards … Continued

  • Benefit Bulletin June 2020

    In yet a third judicial ruling, The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a rule by the Trump Administration that hospitals will have to publicly disclose the prices they negotiate with insurance companies. .The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) urges its members and supporters to make the most of the August recess by attending town hall meetings. For more information, or to see if your Members of Congress will be holding town halls in the coming days, call their local offices. .Sources: "Prescribers With Questionable Patterns In Medicare Part D," Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, June 201"Medicare Fraud Outrunning Enforcement Efforts," The Center For Public Integrity, July 3, 2013. … Continued

Lawmakers compromised on the policy parameters of a long-term solution more than a year ago, but since then, they have been unable to come up with an offset to cover the cost of the 4 billion package. This week, Rep. Tom Price (GA-6), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, said, "We spend .6 trillion a year in this town – to come up with a pay-for ought to be relatively easy. There are things we have used before. There are areas in federal pensions … and rescission money that's available out there. We ought to be able to find some resources to pay for this patch." .The CPI-E Act of 2017 (H.R.1251) gained two new cosponsors in Representative Peter Welch (VT-01) and Representative Jamie Raskin (MD-08), bringing the new cosponsor total up to 4If signed into law, H.R. 1251 will base cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for Social Security benefits on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E). .1977 Changes Fixed An Earlier Flaw In The Benefit Formula .Please, share this video with your friends (use the "Share" button above or copy the URL into an email). .The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the number of beneficiaries that will be required to pay the increased Medicare premiums will almost triple over the next decade rising from five percent of beneficiaries in 2011 to 14 percent in 2019 due to the expansions of "means testing" in the PPACA. By 2019 one out of every five new enrollees will have to pay higher premiums. The Senior Citizens League strongly opposes the "means test" and supports efforts to repeal it. To learn more, please visit . .Demographics dictate that Medicare spending will climb in the future as more people become eligible and enroll, and as aging increases the need for more healthcare services. Cutting the growth of Medicare spending without cutting access to affordable care for seniors will be a monumental challenge for Congress. TSCL believes a great deal more can be done to find savings by making the system more efficient and to clamp down on fraud, waste and abuse. .As a proud affiliate of TREThe Enlisted Association, and because many of TSCL supporters are military retirees we keep a close eye on the health benefits of military retirees. .The federal contribution would be redirected from disaster relief money at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Those funds are not likely to last more than two months, and the President did not say when the benefits would kick in. .The Senior Citizens League supports bipartisan legislation that would require Medicare to negotiate lower prices for Medicare Part D, would allow safe importation of prescription drugs from Canada and other countries where the same drugs are often sold for much less, and would ban "pay for delay" deals between drug manufacturers that keep cheaper generics off the market. To learn what you can do to help fight high drug costs, visit .