News
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Legislative Update Week Ending February 24 2017
With over 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. .Grassley to Push Hard in the Senate for his Drug Pricing Bill .What Are The Ten Fastest Growing Senior Costs? … Continued
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Issues Social Security Reform Faqs
Provide a one-time bump – up in monthly benefits for all beneficiaries. A higher level of monthly benefits would mean more adequate COLAs and a greater ability to afford Medicare Part B premium increases in coming years. .Catastrophic coverage stage (if you spend a total of more than ,100 counting all your prescriptions): .15 .Members of the Finance Committee seemed receptive to Blum's suggestions on Wednesday, but it remains to be seen whether they will act in the coming months. Thus far, one of the greatest hurdles for lawmakers has been coming up with an offset to cover the cost of the repeal – the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the price tag will be nearly 0 billion over ten years. TSCL is hopeful that lawmakers will repeal and replace the SGR by the end of this year in order to preserve seniors' access to quality medical care. As the discussions evolve over the coming months, we will continue to post updates here in the Legislative News section of our website. … Continued
But one thing is clear: Congress and the President, whoever his is, will have massive issues to deal with, not the least of which will be the future solvency of Social Security and Medicare. Our political leaders have to stop avoiding dealing with these tough issues. They can't continue to "kick the can down the road." .Alexandria, VA (June 14, 2011) Cost-of-living-adjustments (COLAs) are "overpaying" Social Security recipients, and the government needs to switch to an "improved" method of measuring inflation that will give them a "small trim". That's what deficit negotiators from both sides of the aisle are saying in making the case for the government to switch to a more slowly-growing Consumer Price Index (CPI) for calculating the annual Social Security boost. .The message here isn't "work till you drop." Working even a few additional years can boost retirement security substantially when you finally do retire. There's a "triple whammy" effect -- delayed Social Security filings means higher monthly benefits; you have more years of contributions to retirement accounts; and you have fewer net years of drawing down those accounts. Working with financial planning experts, we estimated that these factors can boost income in retirement by one-third or more. .The following Members of Congress, among others, will hold town halls this week: Sen. Michael Crapo (ID), Sen. Jerry Moran (KS), Sen. Mike Lee (UT), Rep. Frank Lucas (OK-3), Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), and Rep. Donna Edwards (MD-4). .The "lame duck" session of Congress began this week, and leaders in the House and Senate are hard at work on an omnibus measure that would fund the federal government through the remainder of the fiscal year. Passing an omnibus in December, according to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (KY-5), would allow the new Congress to "get old business behind [it] and start off with a clean slate in January." .For progress updates or for more information about these and other bills that would strengthen Social Security and Medicare programs, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website or follow TSCL on Twitter. .Officials in Canada said at that time that this would not be an effective approach to reducing drug prices in the U.S. since the Canadian market is small, representing only 2% of global pharmaceutical sales, compared to 44% south of the border. .I turn 61 this year and I'm still employed. I've read about waiting until my full retirement age before starting Social Security benefits. Is that 66? Do I enroll in Medicare at the same time I start Social Security? .While retirees won't be getting as much of an increase in their Social Security checks in 2020, the Part B premium, is expected to go up considerably more than it did this year. In 2019, most beneficiaries paid .50 per month more than in 201In 2020, however, the Medicare Trustees have forecast that Part B premiums will increase from 5.50 to 4.30 per month — .80 per month more—an increase of 6.5%. That's four times faster than the COLA.
