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  • Congressional Corner Totalization Amnesty And Illegal Immigrations Drain On The Social Security

    How To Make Smarter Tax Decisions — Higher taxes are in the pipeline for all taxpayers, including seniors. It's essential to get better acquainted with your tax liabilities now, and to take action to reduce them. .Nations all over the world are experiencing unprecedented disruptions to the drug supply chain, and that affects the U.S. drug supply. You may be interested in this article which explains the problem:https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/24/us-drug-shortage-fears-grow-as-india-locks-down-due-to-the-coronavirus.html. .It's unlikely that Congress will move forward on this plan or any Medicare reform proposals before a critical election, but The Senior Citizens League will keep a close eye on the negotiations. … Continued

  • Ask The Advisor April 2019

    The Senior Citizens League supports legislation that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, and limit drug price increases to the rate of inflation. .To learn more, download "When To Start Receiving Benefits" from the Social Security Administration. .The most widely-discussed proposals to revamp Social Security include raising the eligibility age, making the benefit formula less generous, and reducing the Social Security cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). Reducing COLAs would impact the lifetime Social Security benefits of all current beneficiaries, as well as affecting future retirees. Under discussion is a proposal that would reduce COLAs by switching to a more slowly-growing, "chained" consumer price index to calculate the annual benefit boost. In fact the new tax law, recently did something similar. Indexing of income tax brackets, the standard deduction, and other parameters of the tax code for inflation was tied to a chained COLA. That means that people will pay higher taxes over time, as the standard deduction becomes less generous, while rising income would tend to push older taxpayers into higher brackets. … Continued

Support Grows for Notch Fairness Act .While most in Washington acknowledge this dilemma, and House Republicans have put forward a plan to address the issue, our leaders have yet to agree upon a solution to preserve the program for seniors beyond that date, and instead are pitting each other against seniors. .In 2005 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report documenting the growth of the ESF saying a number of factors contribute to the earnings reports, particularly minimal work site immigration enforcement(16) efforts. The GAO also reported that the percentage of foreign-born persons receiving reinstatements has grown dramatically over time from about 8% in 1986 to nearly 21% in 200The country of birth of foreign-born receiving the greatest number reinstatements is Mexico. .We have been hearing from hundreds of you who are watching the inflation numbers and eagerly looking forward to getting a high inflation boost next year. But a number of you point out an urgent problem that occurs. COLA Estimated to Be 6% to 6.1% For 2022 , editor .The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently began a review of all pending immigration deportation cases with the goal of dismissing those of illegal immigrants with no criminal records. TSCL is concerned that the policy, which would scale back deportations of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, could potentially add hundreds of billions in new costs to the growing deficit problems of Social Security, SSI, Medicare and Medicaid. .If our annual COLA works as intended, this should not happen. .Alexandria, VSpiking drug prices are taking large numbers of Medicare beneficiaries by surprise according to a new survey by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL). Sixty-one percent of people with Medicare drug coverage report higher co-pays and co-insurance costs than expected in 2014 according to more than 1,000 survey participants. The reason for the cost spikes may be tough for many beneficiaries to figure out, according to the survey. Sky-high drug prices are commonly associated with brand and newer specialty drugs, but cost spikes are now affecting generics as well. .Today's seniors have spent a lifetime paying into benefit programs like Social Security. They did so under the assumption that those programs' benefits will be there for them when they need them. All too frequently, though, illegal immigrants are reaping benefits without first paying their fair share into the program, and those who paid into Social Security fear that expected benefits will not be available when the time comes. .How did the coronavirus affect you? Your answer helps Congress understand the needs of older Americans. Please participate in TSCL's 2020 Senior Cost Survey at /2020-senior-cost-survey.