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  • Growth In Seniors Filing For Bankruptcy Outpaces Younger Americans Feed

    MedPAC Delivers Report, Testimony to Congress .The "offset" rules for unemployment affected large numbers of seniors during the recent period of high unemployment. In Virginia, for example, the state unemployment insurance reserves dropped so low that a state law was triggered requiring cuts to the unemployment benefit payments of Social Security recipients in January 20By October, 30,000 jobless seniors in Virginia had been affected, and the offset completely wiped out the unemployment benefit of an additional 4,000. .Medicare Therapy Caps: A Long Battle for Patient Access … Continued

  • 48 Of Older Americans Have Gone Without Essentials During Pandemic

    The drugs that would be affected by any Trump action are among the costliest taken by Americans. They include innovative therapies for cancer, immune disease and other disorders. The industry says that Part B pharmaceutical spending makes up just 3% of overall Medicare costs. .The House of Representatives did not return to Washington but on Friday they held a vote on a resolution about whether to start conducting official votes by using proxies. To do so would end more than 200 years of precedent and now allow lawmakers serve as proxies for colleagues quarantined or otherwise stuck at home during the pandemic. .The study examined the increase in costs of 32 key items between 2000 and January 201The items were chosen because they are typical of the costs seniors must bear. Of the 32 costs analyzed, 20 exceeded the total percentage of increase in the COLA over the same period. … Continued

"Income-Relating Medicare Part B and Part D Premiums: How Many Medicare Beneficiaries Will Be Affected?" Kaiser Family Foundation, Publication No. 8126, December 2010. .The Medicare report estimated the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will become depleted in just six more year. .Paula's total premium costs came to 2.90 per month for the rest of 2007 rather than 0 per month, a savings of .10 per month in premiums alone. In addition, because she found a more appropriate drug plan, she will save an estimated additional .25 per month in drug costs in 2007. .The responsibility is on you to notify the SSA of your age, and file an application for retirement benefits based on your own earnings, if higher. As you continue working past age 66, the retirement benefit you receive based on your own earnings continues to grow. That retirement credit is only applied until age 70; however, there's no additional increase thereafter, so put in your claim now. .On the unemployment payments to individuals, there are a lot of legal questions about the money the President wants to use to pay for this. He calls for billion of funding from the Department of Homeland Security's Disaster Relief Fund that is normally used for hurricanes, tornadoes, and massive fires to be shifted over to unemployment. .Finally, two cosponsors also signed on to the Social Security Fairness Act (S. 896 and H.R. 1795) this week, bringing the total up to eleven in the Senate and eighty-five in the House. The new cosponsors are Sen. Bernard Sanders (VT) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (CA-47). If signed into law, H.R. 1795 would repeal two provisions of the Social Security Act that unfairly reduce the earned benefits of millions of state and local government employees each year. The provisions – the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset – prevent dedicated public servants from receiving the retirement security they have earned. .Five years after IPAB's creation, it still has no appointed members and, due to record-low growth in healthcare costs, it hasn't been triggered to make recommendations to Congress yet. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, says she doesn't expect it to be triggered until 201But hundreds of lawmakers have serious concerns about the prospect of the board since it would be comprised of unelected and unaccountable appointees. They are hoping to pass legislation that would do away with it by the end of this year. .It's widely anticipated that benefits will be cut, perhaps significantly, for retirees at some point in the relatively near future, and that significantly higher taxes will be needed. In addition, this inconsistency between Social Security and immigration law suggests that newly work-authorized immigrants may benefit in the future, at least to some extent, at the expense of native-born U.S. workers and retirees who paid into the system legally over their entire working careers. .You may be surprised to learn that Members of Congress, and their congressional staff, receive their employer-sponsored insurance through Obamacare. Their health benefits would also be affected by an Obamacare repeal as well — but unlike your sister and millions of other Americans, Members of Congress already have high quality health insurance to replace their Obamacare plans. In fact, the premium costs of some Members of Congress could go down as they transition back to getting insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB).