News

  • Legislative Update For Week Ending November 13 2015

    President Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the federal government to buy certain drugs solely from American factories. .Is his condition "severe"? Your husband's medical condition must significantly limit his ability to do basic work— for at least 12 months. . How much would delaying retirement benefits after my full retirement age be worth? I turn 66 in August. … Continued

  • Fastest Growing Retiree Cost 2015 Hint Not Prescriptions

    Alexandria, VA (October 24, 2011) In January, for the first time in two years, Social Security recipients will get a sorely-needed cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). Benefits will rise 3.6% in 2012, following a surge in inflation that occurred even while seniors had no annual increase to help meet rapidly rising prices. Stagnant COLAs may soon be a fact of life for beneficiaries - a change that would also lower lifetime Social Security benefits, especially for Baby Boomers, warns The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups. .Surprise! A new Part D plan drug pricing program may lower costs for those who seek out the savings. Recent Congressional scrutiny on drug pricing may be spurring some drug plans to drop prices on certain drugs. A new drug plan pricing program offered by Cigna, for example, lowers the cost of insulin. In 2018, the lowest cost Part D plan charged an copay for a 100/ML of Lantus Solostar. In 2019, the lowest cost plan in my area charges copays as low as .00 - .00 for Lantus Solostar in the Cigna-HealthSpring Rx Secure — Extra Part D plan. The highest cost plan, which does not cover Lantus, charges the full price, 3.18 per 100/ML. Which would you rather have? .This week, the House of Representatives was scheduled to consider legislation which would repeal the health care reform law. However, due to the tragic shooting in Arizona over the weekend—which left six people dead, eleven wounded, and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-8) clinging to life—the House schedule was cleared. … Continued

The amount of the credit will increase for many taxpayers. .Because of the huge demand various brands of sanitizers started appearing in stores that we had not seen before. Then we were alerted that some of those that were made in Mexico contained methanol, a form of alcohol that's poisonous to humans, and we should not use them. .Three Bills Gain Cosponsors .During the years in which inflation as measured by the CPI-W has been the highest, the difference between it and the chained CPI has been greatest. In 2008, for example, when the CPI-W paid a COLA of 5.8% the following year, the chained CPI would have only paid 5.2%, a difference of 0.6 of a percentage point. "And if the government were to use the initial chained CPI data to calculate COLAs for 2012, seniors would get just 2.7% instead of 3.6%, a difference of 0.9 of a percentage point," Hyland says. .Town Hall Question: Research indicates that seniors have already lost more than 30 percent of their purchasing power since 2000. What is your position on the adoption of the "chained" CPI for the calculation of Social Security COLAs? .We will keep a close eye on the evolving discussions in the months ahead, and we will post updates here in the Legislative News section of our website. .Roughly 27% of older single women are at high risk of living in poverty, because they have little other income to augment their Social Security benefits. Single women have it worse in retirement than married couples and men, and are more likely to become impoverished as they age. Most women have lower benefits than men. Women tend to work in lower-paying jobs, get paid less than men, and take time out of the workforce to take care of children and older family members. That can leave zero earnings gaps, or only partial years of earnings for the time out of the work force. .Just how bad is it? We were stunned to learn just how big the disparity in drug prices can be. Recently I compared the highest and lowest prices of the top ten most-prescribed drugs in the U.S. using the Medicare drug plan finder. In my area, a monthly supply of diabetes drug Lantus Solostar for example, ranges from a high of 2.00 from the mail order pharmacy of First Health Part D Value Plus plan to a low of .75 from the network retail pharmacies for SilverScript Choice. In fact, the cost difference between the highest and lowest-cost plans for the ten drugs compared averaged 3 per month! .Make no mistake: millions of American families and our entire economy depend on getting mature workers the right skills for today's jobs. We need them back at work, earning good salaries, investing in their retirement, mentoring young workers and driving our economy forward.