"More good news: More than 90% of beneficiaries reported following advice on hand washing, social distancing, mask wearing, and avoiding large groups and sick people.".For tips on which questions you should ask your Member of Congress at your next town hall meeting, click HERE. To learn more about important issues affecting seniors, to sign a petition to Congress, or to find contact information for your Members of Congress, please visit the ACTION CENTER of our website..Unfortunately, the two other changes that took effect last month will not affect seniors as positively. Young retirees will be hit with an increase in the threshold for the itemized deductions of medical expenses. Those under the age of sixty-five will not be able to deduct unreimbursed medical expenses unless they account for at least 10 percent of adjusted gross income. Those over the age of sixty-five may continue using the 7.5 percent threshold until 2017; however, all seniors should beware that this tax provision may be modified or even eliminated as lawmakers continue to search for ways to reduce the deficit..I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to put the soda aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over..It turned out that Flo was working for the deep pocketed pharmaceutical industry. They successfully used her ad to sink major legislation proposed by President Bill Clinton to add a voluntary drug benefit to Medicare. It wasn't until 2003 that the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act, which added the Part D drug benefit to Medicare, was finally signed into law by President George W. Bush. But, although the bill provided a drug benefit, it specifically prohibited Medicare from negotiating prices with drug manufacturers, even though Medicare negotiates prices for almost every other service and for Part B drugs. High drug prices put patient's lives at risk every day when people can't afford to fill their prescriptions..Nearly, 1.5 million people are affected by the WEP, which reduces the earned Social Security benefits of an individual who also receives a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security. For example, a teacher who spends his or her summers working a second job or a police officer who leaves the force after years of service but is not quite ready to retire can see their benefits reduced by as much as 40 percent. However, a similar worker with a private sector pension would not see this kind of reduction. We are punishing public sector employees such as our teachers, firefighters, and police officers..Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle at Wednesday's hearing expressed their strong interest in addressing the growing DI backlog. In his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson said: "Today, over one million people are waiting for a hearing with a Social Security Administrative Law Judge, and on average these folks will wait around 600 days to get that hearing. That's nearly two years!" He continued, saying: "While not all of them will qualify for DI benefits, all of these people deserve an answer in a timely fashion. And for those who don't qualify for benefits, these long wait times make getting back to work even harder.".Here are six steps to take now that can help you slow hitting the doughnut hole.If adopted, S. 269 would strengthen and reform the Social Security program by providing beneficiaries with a 2 percent benefit boost, basing cost-of-living adjustments on the CPI-E, creating a new minimum benefit set at 125 percent of the poverty line, and cutting taxes for beneficiaries. It would also apply the payroll tax to income over 0,000 and gradually increase the payroll tax rate to 7.4 percent.
