News

  • October 2012 The State Journal Register

    To put the problem of Medicare's cost growth into perspective, the following table illustrates what common food items would cost in 2014, if they had increased as rapidly as Medicare Part B premiums. To give a fuller picture, this table spans a 3year period, the length many Baby Boomers can expect to live in retirement. Medicare Part B premiums are twelve times higher today than 34 years ago in 1980. .When working Social Security recipients who are younger than full retirement age earn more than the annual earnings limit amount, their benefits will be reduced. The Social Security Administration likes to point out that these benefit reductions are "not truly lost because your benefit will be increased at your full retirement age to account for benefits withheld due to earlier earnings." But as you have discovered, you can sometimes wind up owing money to Social Security that was not withheld properly. .Democrats have delayed the start of the program in part because of its cost and an agreement to limit the overall spending in the Biden budget bill to .5 trillion. There is some talk on Capitol Hill of offering seniors limited vouchers to use toward dental benefits before 2028 as a compromise. … Continued

  • Medicare Q A Feed

    Perhaps the most difficult task on Capitol Hill today is getting the attention of Members of Congress. Yet, the nature of grassroots advocacy lends itself as an effective tool for grabbing the ear of Congress on matters needing decisive action. For The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) and our nearly 1.1 million supporters across the nation, this is no different. .Sources: Statement: Social Security Payments Go Paperless, Honorable Patrick P. O'Carroll, Jr., Inspector General, Social Security Administration, June 19, 2013. .The new benefit formula under the 1977 law changes used "wage indexing" to calculate the initial retirement benefit. The economic assumptions used by Congress and the Social Security Administration assumed that wages would grow more quickly than price inflation. Generally, this is the way the economy tends to perform under normal circumstances. In reality, however, the reverse happened. … Continued

Social Security Reform – Extending the program's solvency without enacting harmful cuts. .To identify people in the country illegally, Medicare relies on information from the Social Security Administration in order to deny claims. The Social Security Administration receives data from the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies but CMS doesn't always receive information relating to unlawful presence in a timely manner, according to the Inspector General. .But last Monday the drug company executives announced they would not be going to the White House meeting. A spokesman for PhRMA, the giant lobbying group for many of the biggest drug manufacturers, said the White House talks were a distraction. .If signed into law, the PRIME Act would take a number of steps to prevent and reduce fraud, waste, and abuse within the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Among other things, it would enact stronger fraud penalties, curb mistaken payments by the agencies, phase out the ineffective "pay and chase" practice, reduce the theft of physician identities, and improve the sharing of fraud data among states, agencies, and programs. .First, one new cosponsor – Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA) – signed on to the Patient Right to Know Act (S. 2554), bringing the total up to seven. If adopted, this bipartisan bill would ensure that pharmacists are never prohibited from telling patients when their prescriptions would be cheaper out-of-pocket than through their insurance coverage. .In the months ahead, The Senior Citizens League will continue to work for enactment of legislation that would strengthen Medicare and lower costs for current and future beneficiaries. For progress updates, follow The Senior Citizens League on Twitter. .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 TREA The Enlisted Association. .The Senior Citizens League enthusiastically supports the six bills listed above, and we were pleased to see support grow for them this week. For more information about these and other TSCL-backed bills, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website. .Rep. McIntyre has consistently cosponsored the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E) Act, a bill that would provide seniors with a more fair and accurate Social Security cost-of-living adjustment. He has also cosponsored legislation that would close a Social Security loophole that allows non-citizens to become entitled to Social Security benefits for work done illegally. Finally, Rep. McIntyre introduced the Notch Fairness Act in 2011, a bill that would provide those born between the years 1917 and 1926 with modest compensation for the lower Social Security benefits that they tend to receive.