News

  • Medicaremedicaid Dual Eligibles May Be In For Health Plan Change

    Traveling Is Still a Danger .Sources: "Humana Inc. Overcharged Medicare Nearly 0 Million, Federal Audit Finds," Fred Schulte, NPR, April 20, 202"Insurers Running Medicare Advantage Plans Overbill Taxpayers By Billions As Feds Struggle to Stop It," Fred Schulte and Lauren Weber, Kaiser Health News, July 16, 201"Reducing Medicare Advantage Overpayments," Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, February, 23, 2021. .At the hearing, the witnesses explained the intricacies of the prescription drug price-setting process and the drivers of rising costs. Doctor Anderson told the committee members, "Drug pricing is extremely complex … When a company has a monopoly, it sets the price that maximizes its profit and that's not the price that allows all people to get access to the drug." Doctor Howard urged Congress to "create incentives that reward providers who use medicines and technology to deliver care as efficiently as possible, while also empowering patients with the information they need to identify high-quality providers." … Continued

  • Legislative Update For Week Ending September 27 2013 2

    Many expected immigration reform to be a focal point of the President's speech, however, his remarks on the topic were vague and very brief. In one short paragraph, he said, "Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have acted. I know that members of both parties in the House want to do the same … So let's get immigration reform done this year." TSCL has some serious concerns about comprehensive immigration reform, since it would further strain the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. We strongly feel that any efforts to reform the system should include loophole-closing legislation that would prevent immigrants from receiving benefits based on a history of illegal work. .Part D — If you choose a Medigap plan, or a Medicare Advantage plan that does not offer drug coverage, you will need a Part D plan. If you take any prescription drugs, be sure to input your medications to get an accurate estimate of costs and to check the coverage of the drugs you take. Coverage of prescription drugs varies from plan to plan and from one year to the next. The average monthly premium for Part D plans weighted for enrollment is Plans often charge a deductible and in 2011 you would need to spend a total of ,550 out-of-pocket (not including premiums) before reaching catastrophic coverage. .This week, one new cosponsor – Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA-19) – signed on to Rep. Grace Meng's (NY-6) Notch Fairness Act (H.R. 314), bringing the total up to twelve. If signed into law, H.R. 314 would provide modest compensation to victims of the Social Security Notch, or those who were born between 1917 and 1926. … Continued

Your Initial Enrollment Period starts three months prior to turning age 65, includes the month you turn 65, and ends 3 months after you turn 6Advisor editor Mary Johnson, who has helped dozens of friends and neighbors with their Medicare, highly recommends starting the Medicare enrollment process 3 months before you turn 65, in order to have your new coverage become effective in the month you turn 6Enrolling in Medicare is done online through the Social Security website at www.SocialSecurity.gov. Look for the box that says, "Enroll in Medicare". Or you can get assistance to help you with this. .For details, or to see if your Members of Congress will be holding town hall meetings during the summer recess, call their local offices. You can find contact information HERE. For a list of ten sample town hall questions, click HERE. ."If Congress adopts the more slowly-growing ?chained? CPI to calculate COLAs, that would cut the growth in average benefits, about ,100 per month today, by about ,742 over a 25-year retirement," states Larry Hyland, Chairman of TSCL. The benefit reductions compound over time, hitting the oldest the hardest. "By the time age 62 retirees with average benefits today reach age 84, their monthly benefits would be about 8 lower than they would receive using the current COLA methodology," Hyland says. .In the weeks ahead, TSCL will continue to advocate for tax reforms that would benefit the financial security of older Americans, and we will post updates on the movement of the Ways and Means Committee's bill here in the Legislative News section of our website. For more information on TSCL's tax reform recommendations, click HERE. .72% support applying the Social Security payroll tax to all earnings (instead of capping the amount of wages to be taxed at 2,800), a move that would reduce Social Security's long - term deficit by as much as 73%. .The Notch years are 1917 through 1926, but this is subject to some controversy. To read more detail, click here: What is the "Notch"? .The Senior Citizens League enthusiastically supports H.R. 3302 and H.R. 1114, and we will continue to advocate for them tirelessly in months ahead. For more information, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website. .Early this week, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that it would immediately remove the text requirement from the online account login process. TSCL first voiced concerns about the new security policy two weeks ago, when we learned of the change. Senior policy analyst Jessie Gibbons told Karen Damato of Money: "We're concerned that the abrupt change will cause a lot of confusion and frustration among older Americans, many of whom don't have reliable access to text-enabled cell phones." .In setting prices, drug makers rarely acknowledge the considerable federal funding and research that have helped develop their products; they have not offered taxpayer-investors financial payback.