News
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Senior Cpi Would Provide More Adequate Social Security Cola Next Year
According to Mr. Brune, SSA is making several organizational and technology-driven improvements that will lead to an increase in fraud detection. The administration is currently expanding its successful Cooperative Disability Investigations (CDI) program, which prevents benefit payments from being made in cases where fraud is detected. The CDI program is operating in thirty-three states this year, and it is expected to expand to the remaining seventeen states by 202Mr. Brune said, "Chairman Johnson and this Subcommittee have long championed this CDI program, and we thank you for that support." .However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) refused to bring the bill up in the Senate for debate or a vote. As a result, Congressional leaders have been struggling over the past few weeks to come up with legislation to deal with those issues to help those Americans who have been hurt so badly by the virus and the horrible economy that has resulted. ."This increase is due in large part to the effects of a zero and an excessively low cost of living adjustment (COLA) in 2016 and 2017, occurring when Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket costs like prescription drugs were climbing steeply," says Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League. … Continued
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How Long After Passage Will It Take To Award Notch Benefits Feed
On Wednesday, Congressmen Elijah Cummings (MD-7) and Peter Welch (VT) met with President Donald Trump to discuss the state of the prescription drug industry. At the meeting, they requested President Trump's support for TSCL-backed legislation called the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (H.R. 242, S. 41), which would require the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices on behalf of Medicare Part D beneficiaries. Currently, Medicare is prohibited from doing so despite the fact that other federal health programs are required to. .Call your local State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) and ask for free counseling from a Medicare counselor. You can find local contact info here: https://www.shiptacenter.org. Many of these programs operate through local agencies on aging or senior services departments. Counselors can help you over the phone from home. .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
4 in 10 beneficiaries rely on Social Security for the majority of their income. .Dental Coverage Under Medicare ."While there's nothing unlawful per se about rushing to enact policy in the final days of a presidential administration (indeed, it's a time-honored tradition), executive branch officials may not circumvent clear legal requirements in the eleventh hour to achieve goals they couldn't accomplish in the normal course," he said. .And third, one new cosponsor – Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) – signed on to the Social Security 2100 Act (S. 2671), bringing the cosponsor total to two. If adopted, S. 2671 would comprehensively strengthen and reform the Social Security program by basing COLAs on the CPI-E, increasing monthly benefits by 2%, creating a new Special Minimum Benefit equal to 125% of the poverty line, providing a tax cut to Social Security beneficiaries, applying the payroll tax to annual income over 0,000, and gradually increasing the payroll tax rate by 0.25%. .Third, TSCL was pleased that Congress passed legislation last fall to stave off a 52 percent hike in Medicare Part B premiums for around 15 million beneficiaries. Back in October, our legislative team hand delivered letters to every office on Capitol Hill urging lawmakers to prevent the abrupt and dramatic premium increase. We were pleased when legislation was signed into law later that month to provide relief for the millions of Medicare beneficiaries who would have otherwise seen massive cost increases in January. .And, in case you had any doubts about why you need that Medicare Advantage plan in the first place, here are the general types of costs if you have Medicare Advantage plan coverage compared with having traditional Medicare with a Medigap supplement. .An immigration program launched by the Obama Administration two years ago has issued valid, work-authorized Social Security numbers to about 600,000 applicants who attest to be in the country illegally. The program, known as "Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals," is one of a series of administrative amnesty initiatives by President Obama to stop deportations of immigrants and let undocumented immigrants who meet the qualifications work in this country despite illegal status. Now immigration activists are pressuring President Obama and Members of Congress to expand the Deferred Action program, or pass immigration reform. .The pharmaceutical industry warns the move could damage its profits and take away incentives to invent new treatments. .The government would provide a fixed amount of money or "voucher" to purchase private coverage. Currently Medicare pays per procedure. Under this proposal the federal government would provide a fixed amount of money or "voucher," to private health plans to provide coverage. The amount of the voucher would be limited to the growth of the gross domestic product plus one percentage point. However, for the last 40 years national healthcare spending has exceeded the growth of the gross domestic product by more than two percentage points. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said that over time the vouchers would become increasingly inadequate to purchase sufficient coverage, or that seniors would face significantly higher premiums.
