News

When Medicare solvency is under discussion, the focus is often placed on the Medicare Part A Trust Fund, which is primarily financed by payroll taxes. The last time Medicare Part A Trust Fund was forecast to become insolvent was in 200That year, the Medicare Trust Fund was forecast to become insolvent by 201In 2010, Congress enacted the Affordable Care Act which changed Medicare revenues in two ways. It added an additional payroll tax of 0.9% to the 1.45% of Medicare taxes paid by high earning individuals with wages over 0,000. A second provision affecting individuals with this level of income, imposed a new 3.8% tax on a portion of net investment income. Estates and trusts can also be subject to this tax..Rehab the kitchen. Mid to lower range kitchen remodels can have the highest return when you sell your home, but avoid going overboard. Most buyers don't like to pay extra for that professional 8-burner gas range or a fancy fridge. Replace missing drawers or those that no longer function. If your cabinets are outdated and beat up, a less expensive option to replacing them is resurfacing, which involves attaching a thin veneer to the surface, and replacing doors and hardware. Repair leaky facets, and replace stained or worn out sinks and fixtures. Consult with your real estate agent on counter tops - laminate instead of granite may be just fine..To do this, Larson's bill would increase the payroll tax rate gradually over 24 years through annual 0.1% increases, and it would also apply payroll taxes to all earnings instead of just the first 7,700..Senate Returns to Washington.Lawmakers Remain in Recess.State and local property taxes up to ,000..To contact Social Security, you may call toll free at or visit the website at..Three Programs That Help Seniors With Medicare Costs.for home care, adult day care, as well as assisted living and nursing home care.

Blog Leaders Gather In Washington

Non-citizens who are assigned a Social Security number on or after January 1, 2004, must receive legal work authorization at some point in order to file a claim for Social Security benefits. If they never get legal work authorization, then they can't legally file a claim. If at some point they do receive work authorization, as they would under immigration amnesty proposals, then all of their earnings would be used to determine entitlement for Social Security, even for jobs worked while illegal. If the worker kept records and could prove the earnings were theirs, the earnings would be re-instated to their authorized Social Security number and used to determine entitlement to benefits..Your Social Security benefits are affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision. It affects people who have worked in jobs covered by Social Security and other jobs in which Social Security taxes were not taken out of your pay - like some government jobs, or for employers in other countries. The good news is that the WEP does not apply to survivors benefits, and because your wife worked in a private sector job that was covered by Social Security, she's not affected by the Government Pension Offset - a similar provision that reduces spouses and survivor benefits..In addition, one new cosponsor Reps. Zoe Lofgren signed on to the Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act. The cosponsor total is now up to one hundred and forty-eight. If signed into law, H.R. 1179 would amend current Medicare policy to count hospital stays under "observation status" towards the three-day requirement for skilled nursing care. Currently, those under "observation status" don't qualify for coverage of the benefit, and they are often hit with large, unexpected bills after receiving necessary medical care. … Continued

Nourish Can What You Eat Really Decrease Your Risk For Cancer

Tying the annual cost-of-living adjustments to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly. We expect this change would pay a COLA that's about.25 percentage point per year higher and would boost average benefits about per month by the end of a 20-year period..New IRS medical expense rules for people age 65 and over reduce the amount of medical expenses you can deduct for the 2017 tax year. In 2017, you or - you and your spouse - can deduct the amount of unreimbursed allowable medical expenses that is more than 10% of your adjusted gross income. Last year people over the age of 65 were allowed to deduct medical expenses that were over 7.5% of the AGI..Most seniors are aware of the impact of the consumer price index on COLAs. But switching to the more slowly growing "chained" CPI, if applied government-wide, would be far more reaching than Social Security cuts alone. In every aspect where applied, seniors would receive less in benefits and pay more in higher taxes. The following chart illustrates: … Continued