News

  • Legislative Update March 2011 Advisor Feed

    As we said above, the devil is in the details. Rather than signing four "executive orders," the only real executive order was the one on housing. The other three actions are marked as "memorandum," which carries less authority. .TSCL opposes legislative efforts that would make today's seniors and those nearing Medicare-age pay higher costs for their Medicare coverage. .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. … Continued

  • Congressional Corner Tackling High Cost Prescription Drugs

    The transition has set off dozens of new Medicare scams. To protect yourself from scam here's what to remember. There is nothing you need to do to get your card, and it does not cost anything. It will be shipped to you automatically. Scammers try to call beneficiaries on the phone and falsely claim that to get the new card you must provide Social Security, credit card, or bank account information, or Medicare benefits will be canceled. All of these claims are false. If you get a call like this or if anyone calls unsolicited, and claiming to be from Medicare, HANG UP. This is a scam. Once you get your new Medicare number, don't toss your old Medicare card in the trash — shred or cut it up into small pieces. .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). ."If you're not going in, you're essentially taking the providers' word that they're doing a good job," said Richard Mollot, the executive director of the Long-Term Care Community Coalition. … Continued

Legislation to allow the importation of less-costly FDA-approved prescription drugs from Canada and other nations is still pending in Congress, and TSCL continues to work for enactment. Seniors like you and your wife who order prescription drugs by mail from Canada faced a particularly tough decision about Medicare Part D. Either you enroll in a Part D plan and quite likely pay more than you do now, or don't enroll and face the risk of paying a steep penalty if you change their mind and sign up after the May 15 deadline. .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. .Medicaid Cuts Would Hit Notch Babies And Families Hardest .Almost 4 million retired Notch Babies, spouses and their survivors would benefit from this modest old age boost that TSCL estimates would cost about .5 billion. .What To Do When You Can't Afford Your Drug Costs .The total revenues in the sample could pay the Social Security benefits of 897 retirees, with an average monthly benefit of ,400, for an entire year. Or, that revenue could be used to provide a modest boost to the COLA of 448,560 retirees in the first year, by tying the annual inflation adjustment to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E). .CBO's current estimate of the Old Age and Survivor's Insurance fund's exhaustion date is 2031, one year earlier than its estimate was in 201If current laws generally did not change, CBO estimated the balance of the Disability Insurance fund would be exhausted in 2026. .Senate Subcommittee Considers Family Leave Proposal .Mail order can also help you save if your drug plan is increasing co-pays or drug costs, dropping coverage or making similar changes for 201Orders placed by December 31, 2011 will be filled by your 2011 drug plan mail order pharmacy, and covered at the costs when you place your order your prescription in December.