News

  • Biden Administration Indicates Support For Whatever Health Care Bill Congress Can Pass

    If you start benefits sooner than age 66 and continue to work, you are subject to Social Security earnings restriction rules. Earn more than the annual exempt amount and Social Security will withhold some or all of your earnings. In addition, once you start benefits, your income may subject a portion of your Social Security benefits to tax. .Comprehensive immigration reform has been topping the legislative agenda in Congress for months, but so far most policy wonks and lawmakers have kept quiet about the ways in which reform would affect Social Security. Millions would become eligible to collect Social Security benefits based on work done illegally, under invalid or fraudulent Social Security numbers. TSCL is concerned about the ethical implications of this, and we believe that it would put additional strains on the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. .Screen your calls: Even if you have caller ID, experts suggest screening calls any way. More robo-callers are making their calls appear to be local by using phone numbers from your own local calling area. Unless you know the number of the caller is legit, don't pick up. Legitimate callers, such as your doctor's office calling to remind of an appointment, will leave a message. Tell your family and friends to leave a message and to keep talking at least long enough for you to get to the phone if your phone's speaker allows you to hear the caller's message. … Continued

  • Benefit Bulletin November 2018

    SSA Announces 2019 Social Security COLA of 2.8 Percent .Johnson selected 20 companies for her sample and downloaded each company's public 2018 proxy information, which contains Executive Compensation Tables required by the Security Exchange Commission. The analysis uses only the actual salary and performance pay, both of which are subject to Medicare and Social Security payroll taxes up to the limit. No stock awards were included. .We want to begin this week's update by reminding you to seriously consider seeing your health care provider if you have been putting it off because of the pandemic. That is especially true if you have a serious health condition and you need treatment or close monitoring. … Continued

TSCL supports legislation that would repeal the WEP such as H.R. 3934, the Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act of 2019, bipartisan legislation introduced by Representative Kevin Brady (TX-8). .Call on your Member of Congress and urge them to sign on in support of the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act, and in doing so stand up for millions of American seniors who depend on their access to their doctors and healthcare providers for everyday and lifesaving care. .Instead of using the CPI-W or the "chained" CPI, TSCL has been advocating for an inflation index that we believe would actually result in a more accurate Social Security COLA. We favor the CPI for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E), which the BLS has been tracking &ndah; but not utilizing – for decades. This index has shown that the spending inflation for seniors averages about two-tenths of a percentage point higher than the rate at which the CPI-W increases. We estimate that a senior who retired with average Social Security benefits in 1984 would have received ,496 more through 2013 had the CPI-E been used. .TSCL strongly supports adequate administrative budgets for SSA, and we hope that Congress will act with the best interest of seniors in mind when making funding decisions in the weeks ahead. We will follow the appropriations process closely in the coming weeks, and we will post updates here in the Legislative News section of our website. .Sources: The Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2019, Description of the Chairman's Mark, Senate Committee on Finance, July 25, 201"GOP Senators Distance Themselves From Grassley and Trump's Efforts to Cut Drug Prices," Emmarie Huetteman, Kaiser Health News, July 25, 2019. .The new RAND report is based on 2018 data and compares U.S. drug prices to those in other countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. .It remains to be seen whether or not lawmakers in the Senate will reach an agreement before the midnight deadline. If not, the federal government will shut down like it did back in 201While not likely, an extended government shutdown could result in negative impacts for Social Security beneficiaries and doctors who treat Medicare patients. .The entire process is done at the taxpayer's expense. Non-citizens who worked under fraudulent or invalid Social Security numbers, are not penalized. This occurs even though the use of a non-valid fraudulent SSN is in violation of 1988 identity theft laws. The 1988 law made it a federal crime when a person "knowingly transfers or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law." (15) .On Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee approved legislation that would repeal and replace the sustainable growth rate (SGR), which is the flawed formula that is currently used to determine reimbursements for physicians who treat Medicare patients. The SGR regularly calls for steep pay cuts for doctors and other providers, threatening beneficiaries' access to medical care.