News

  • Social Security Cola For 2020

    How much would your Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) be worth if it was more accurately based on your spending patterns as a retiree? Social Security legislation under debate in the U.S. House would tie the annual boost for inflation to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E). Had that index been used to calculate the COLA for 2020, your annual boost would be 1.9%, versus the 1.6% that Social Security recipients are actually getting. .In addition, two new cosponsors – Reps. Pete Olson (TX-22) and Adam Kinzinger (IL-16) – signed on to the Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures (PRIME) Act (H.R. 2305), bringing the total up to sixty. If signed into law, the PRIME Act would take a number of steps to comprehensively prevent fraud, waste, and abuse within Medicare and Medicaid – a problem that TSCL believes must be addressed in order to ensure that scarce program dollars are being spent properly. .Another Social Security reform bill – the Social Security for Future Generations Act (H.R. 2855) from Congressman Al Lawson, Jr. (FL-5) – gained one new cosponsor this week. The new cosponsor, Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (MP-1), is the nineteenth lawmaker to officially sign on to the bill. If adopted, it would strengthen and improve the program by adopting the CPI-E, applying the payroll tax to income over 0,000, creating a new benefit for widows and widowers, and increasing the Special Minimum Benefit so it equals 125 percent of the poverty line. … Continued

  • Category Legislative News Page 49

    Federal records and senior advocates indicate that many observation patients who call Medicare about the billing problem are told there is nothing that Medicare can do to help. Hospitals are not required to tell patients they are under observation. Patients only learn they were receiving observation services when the bill arrives. By then it's too late because hospitals and doctors are prohibited from reclassifying observation patients as inpatients once they've been discharged. .COLAs are intended to protect the buying power of Social Security benefits against rising inflation. A new study recently released by TSCL found, however, that the CPI used to calculate COLAs today only does an anemic job of protecting benefits as it is. Since 2000, the COLA has increased just 31 percent, while typical seniors' expenses jumped 73 percent, more than twice as fast. .This is especially important new research at a time when Social Security faces potential changes. President Obama's "National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform" is scheduled to release its plan to cut the federal deficit by December 1st. … Continued

After being suspended since November 2, 2015, the debt cap was reinstated last week. "Although the Treasury secretary is using ‘extraordinary measures' to fund the budget for now, a failure to lift the debt limit in time would affect all Americans, including the timely payment of Social Security benefits," says TSCL Social Security and Medicare policy analyst, Mary Johnson. .Jodey Arrington represents Texas' 19th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. .The Social Security Administration recently announced that the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will raise benefits by 2.8% for 201The average retirement benefit of ,400 will increase by .20 per month, to ,439.20. The Medicare Part B premium increase for 2019 will be 5.50 per month — just .50 per month more than the 4 in 201The COLA, the highest in 7 years, and a low Medicare Part B premium increase, should mean most retirees can finally expect a modest boost in net Social Security benefits. .Leaders in Congress are reportedly already discussing their next budgetary move – a long-term deal that would fund the entire government for the next two years. It remains to be seen whether they will reach a compromise before the looming deadline. According to House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (KY-5), they will need to have the parameters for the deal set by November 11th so that appropriators have the time needed to negotiate the details. .TSCL has concerns about this approach, since it would mean that Social Security's Old Age and Survivor's Insurance (OASI) trust fund would receive 0.9 percent less in payroll tax revenues, worsening the retirement program's financing. In a recent poll conducted by TSCL, this approach received virtually no support from respondents – less than 1 percent said shifting revenues from one trust fund to another would be the best way to fix the program's solvency. .That's because COLAs are currently based upon the way young, urban workers, rather than seniors spend their money. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) uses an inflation index called the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). It regularly underestimates the spending inflation that seniors experience since it fails to capture the rising costs of medical care, upon which older Americans spend a disproportionate share of their income. .TSCL believes the time has come for Congress to put the needs of U.S. senior citizens and taxpayers first. We support legislation that would ban the use of illegal earnings in determining entitlement to Social Security such as S. 95, to Prevent Social Security Credit from Being Earned without Legal Status, introduced by Senator David Vitter (LA), and "No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act" (H.R. 787), introduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher (CA). ."Taxpayers and patients will pay more for drugs and medical supplies," a group of more than 250 economists warned in a letter to the White House earlier this year. .Scrapping the Social Security payroll tax cap on the taxable wages would not only provide enough revenues to make the program solvent for another 50 years, but would also pay for a more fair and accurate cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for current retirees. For example, say a CEO of a company receives million in compensation. That individual and the employer each pays 6.2% Social Security taxes on the first 8,500 in wages. Social Security receives a total of ,69But if the entire million were taxed, Social Security would receive 8,000 instead.