TSCL is working hard for legislation that would lift the taxable maximum cap, expand Social Security by boosting retirement benefits and provide greater retirement security by using a "seniors" consumer price index, the CPI-E, to determine the annual COLA. To learn more, visit..The government negotiates prescription drug prices for Medicaid and for veterans, but it is barred from doing so for Medicare Part D beneficiaries. As a result, senior citizens enrolled in Part D often pay much higher prices for their prescriptions than other Americans. Will you support the bipartisan Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act ?.TSCL opposes these new provisions because we feel strongly that seniors should not be required to cover the cost of the poor policy-making decisions that were made by Congress nearly twenty years ago, when lawmakers first created the SGR. According to the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicare beneficiaries will automatically contribute billion in Part B premiums over the next decade to repeal and replace the SGR. TSCL believes any additional cost-sharing including the two new provisions will be unduly harsh..That doesn't mean that a budget agreement is completely out of the question or the much more unlikely scenario that Congress won't get paid. The No Budget No Pay Act holds Congressional paychecks in escrow, and, by law, will release the funds either when a budget agreement is reached, or on the last day of the 113th Congress, which ends on December 31, 2014..There was no Cost of Living Adjustment, or COLA, applied to Social Security benefits for 2011, and that may cause great concern for senior citizens and those who care for them. This will leave 54 million beneficiaries who receive a Social Security check each month without an increase..On Friday, SSA announced that Social Security benefits will increase by 2% percent beginning in January 201While the 2018 cost-of-living adjustment is the largest increase in five years, it continues a trend of abnormally low benefit growth..This week, the House Budget Committee advanced a budget resolution that would reform the Medicare program, and the Senate Aging Committee met to discuss the trajectory of Alzheimer's disease. In addition, three key bills gained support in Congress..In a statement that was released after the final vote, Senator McCain said: "We must now return to the correct way of legislating and send the bill back to committee, hold hearings, receive input from both sides of the aisle, heed the recommendations of the nation's governors, and produce a bill that finally delivers affordable health care for the American people. We must do the hard work our citizens expect of us and deserve." In addition, Senator Murkowski told reporters: "We cannot let the public believe that we are done with health care. We're just beginning.".If signed into law, H.R. 4012 would provide Social Security beneficiaries and retired military members with a 3.9 percent COLA in 2016, which would amount to around 1 for the average beneficiary. It would offset the cost of the emergency COLA and extend the life of the Social Security Trust Funds by closing tax loopholes for corporate executives.
