News
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With Colas Target Of Budget Cuts Seniors Question High Earner Tax Break 4
TSCL encourages its members and supporters to attend these events and to ask questions of their elected officials about important Social Security and Medicare issues, like the following four… .Senator Nelson also asked Congressman Price about his plans to privatize the Medicare program at Wednesday's hearing. A recent reform plan authored by the Congressman would transform the traditional Medicare program into a "premium support" model, where beneficiaries would be given vouchers from the federal government to purchase private insurance. In the past, Congressman Price has claimed that such plans would result in lower costs for both Medicare and its beneficiaries, but at Wednesday's hearing, Senator Nelson presented a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office that projected premium increases of at least 125 percent for seniors living in Florida and other heavily populated states. He expressed serious concerns about the privatization of Medicare since his constituents would see higher medical costs. .COLAs have flat - lined at unprecedented lows over the past 7 years, averaging just 1.2 percent a year. That's less than half the 3 percent that COLAs averaged from 2000 to 200"The low growth in Social Security benefits since 2009 has a significant impact on overall retirement income of anyone who has been retired since that year," Johnson says. "For people retired over the past seven years, monthly benefits in 2016 are today 13 percent lower than if inflation had been the more typical 3 percent per year," Johnson explains. "In dollar amounts, that's 0 per month lower for someone with average benefits," she adds. "This is huge and this loss of anticipated retirement income compounds every year causing people to spend through retirement savings far more quickly than planned, " she says. "Over the course of a 25 or 30 year retirement, it reduces anticipated Social Security income by tens of thousands of dollars," Johnson says. "Unfortunately this financial impact is not fully understood by the vast majority of the public and Members of Congress — The Senior Citizens League is working to change that," Johnson notes. … Continued
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Legislative Update For Week Ending December 21 2012
The federal government negotiates prescription drug prices for Medicaid and for veterans, but it is barred from negotiating lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries. As a result, senior citizens enrolled in Part D often pay much higher prices for their prescriptions. What are you doing to correct this unfair policy? .Have you heard anything about congress fixing a Social Security cut for those of us born in 1960? — K.S. .The uncertainty of Senate passage of the new legislation to waive the cuts to Medicare comes about because of the 2010 Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act, which requires across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration, to "mandatory" programs if any new legislation increases the deficit. … Continued
What Happened To My Higher Retirement Benefit? .Doing this can be worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in savings in a single year, and it's surprisingly simple. Free one-on-one counseling is available from local Medicare benefits counselors like me in every area of the country, through State Health Insurance Programs (SHIP). Many of these programs operate through local area agencies on aging, senior centers, and community health centers. .During last fall's debt limit deal, Members of Congress passed legislation containing un-debated, secret provisions that made two major changes to Social Security benefit claiming strategies. The changes cut the expected retirement income of some married couples already at full entitlement age. Do you believe entitlement cuts are necessary in exchange for your vote to lift the debt limit in the future? .Rep. Gene Green (TX-29) recently introduced a bill that would remove the limit for the amount of outside income that an individual could earn while receiving Social Security benefits. The Social Security Earnings Test Repeal Act of 2011 was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means. .To learn how you can join the effort for an Emergency COLA and Medicare relief, Visit .Congress recently enacted legislation that ended two so-called Social Security benefit "loopholes" — known as "file and suspend" and "restricted application." Details about the changes, which affect some married couples and took effect on April 30th, 2016 — can be found in the Social Security Q & A. ., Editor .The term "Notch" refers to the disparity in Social Security benefits paid to people born from 1917 through 1926 and those paid to people born before and after them with similar work/earnings records. Many of those born during the Notch period feel they have not been treated fairly and are not receiving the benefits that Congress intended. On the other hand, the Social Security Administration (SSA), some government officials, and the AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons) say that those born during the Notch period are treated fairly and receiving the benefits that Congress intended. The SSA and the AARP say that Social Security does not promise a specific amount of benefits, rather Social Security is designed to replace a certain percentage of pre-retirement earnings. Who is correct? .With about 1 million supporters, The Senior Citizens League is one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups. Located just outside Washington, D.C., its mission is to promote and assist members and supporters, to educate and alert senior citizens about their rights and freedoms as U.S. Citizens, and to protect and defend the benefits senior citizens have earned and paid for. The Senior Citizens League is a proud affiliate of The Retired Enlisted Association.