News
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Benefit Bulletin September 2015
TSCL is deeply concerned about the prospect of cuts to benefits and COLAs. Seniors can ill afford any reduction in benefits once they have already retired and are depending on them for their daily expenses. We urge you to learn how Congressional candidates stand on changes to Social Security and Medicare. To learn whether your U.S. Representative or Senators support legislation of interest to you, visit the TSCL website at or call toll free 1-800-333-8725. .Commodities and Services Pricing Survey, an establishment survey of businesses selling goods and services to consumers, used to provide the price data for the CPI .In the days and weeks ahead, TSCL encourages its members and supporters to contact their elected officials to request their support for a clean and immediate increase in the debt ceiling. For frequent updates on this important issue, follow TSCL on Facebook or Twitter. … Continued
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Medicare Proposes Tying Drug Costs Effectiveness
Upon introducing the bill, Rep. Negrete McLeod said: "For seniors living on a fixed income, this could greatly impact their quality of life … We must protect seniors and ensure those who are most vulnerable do not face greater economic insecurity due to rising medical expenses." By preventing the threshold hike from occurring, her bill would save the average senior nearly 0 a year in qualifying tax deductions. TSCL enthusiastically supports H.R. 4104, and we look forward to working with Rep. Negrete McLeod in the coming months to help build support for it. In the meantime, we encourage our members and supporters to contact their representatives to request their support for it. To find contact information for your elected officials, click HERE. .Investigate insurance company ratings. You want a company that will still be here 30 years from now when you are. Check with rating agencies like Standard & Poor's or A.M. Best and only do business with insurance companies having the highest two ratings. .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. … Continued
Premiums and coverage details can vary enormously, but here are a few things to consider: .The coronavirus pandemic has also raised a new issue of concern regarding the price of any new treatment or vaccine for the virus. Congress is pumping billions of federal dollars into research and efforts to spur the production of treatments and a vaccine for Covid-19 but there are no price controls as part of the effort. That means you will have already paid, in-part, for any new vaccine or treatment for the virus. .The Social Security Administration maintains a special Earnings Suspense File of wage reports that don't match the name and Social Security number of those in Social Security records. According to data from the Social Security Administration, an average of 9,762,500 wage reports per year with invalid names or Social Security numbers were received from 2000 through 2007 for an average of .68 billion in wages per year. That much in wages would be worth more than billion per year in Making Work Pay tax credits in 2009 and 2010 if those trends continue. .Low-income seniors would receive assistance from Medicaid, and those with the greatest health expenses would receive additional help from the government. According to the plan's sponsors, The Congressional Health Care for Seniors Act would reduce the deficit by trillion over ten years, and it would save the average enrollee ,500 in out-of-pocket expenses each year. However, a recent poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that a majority of Americans – seventy percent – would prefer to keep Medicare as is, "with the government guaranteeing seniors health insurance and making sure that everyone gets the same defined set of benefits." .Republicans and Democrats across the ideological spectrum agree that the payment system must be repealed and that the rate of growth in health care spending in the United States is unsustainable. But, even with strong bipartisan support, political hurdles still remain. I believe we must set aside politics and work together to enact a fiscally responsible and permanent solution to solve this problem. We owe it to American seniors to end this perennial threat to Medicare once and for all. .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. .I would like to know how, at this point, you project a Social Security COLA at 6.1%. Inflation would have to continue on an upward path through September for that to happen. — R.Q., NJ .There is a wide difference in what the White House and Democrats want to give states and localities, plus school funding, virus testing, and other issues. The difference between Democrats' .5 trillion aid package and Republicans' trillion appeared unbridgeable. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin rejected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's offer of a compromise .4 trillion. As a result, President Trump on Saturday signed what have been largely referred to in the popular press as four executive orders dealing with the issues that had been under discussion. However, it turns out that is not exactly what happened. .The absence of confirmed transmission is not necessarily evidence that fliers are safe. Instead, the lack of data reflects the fact that the U.S. has a higher infection rate relative to other countries, said Chen. Since the U.S. has so many confirmed cases, it's more difficult to determine exactly where somebody contracted the virus.
