News

But with low growth in Social Security benefits, rapidly growing healthcare costs, and more people living longer in retirement, that argument has little support among the public. A March 2016, Pew Research survey found that 71% of Americans believe benefits "should not be reduced" while only 26% say that "cuts should be considered.".Click here to learn more about the NASI survey..Independent financial planners (who don't sell long term care.A question to ask yourself is how long you plan to stay in the home, and how many years remain on your current mortgage. If your current mortgage only has 10 or 15 years left to go, refinancing is likely to result in higher lifetime interest costs. When you get a new loan, most of the charges in the early years go towards interest costs. But if you only have a few years left on your current loan, you have moved past that stage and are making progress toward paying off your loan balance. If you refinance now, you start over from scratch..Compare your drug and health plan options during the Medicare Open Enrollment period October 15th - December 7th. Does your current drug plan cover expensive new prescriptions? If not, you need to check your other options. Chances are another plan will. Use the Drug and Health Plan Finder at. Make sure you carefully enter every prescription drug you take in order to get a custom comparison of your best drug plan choices. Costs can vary by hundreds, even thousands, of dollars, and you may be very surprised by the savings from switching to a better plan. You can get unbiased help to compare your coverage. Call your Area Agency on Aging and ask for the help of a State Health Insurance Assistance Program counselor, or visit online..Eating more fruits and vegetables can help you stay healthier longer, reducing the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. But good quality produce can be difficult to afford, especially for people who depend on Social Security for most of their income. How can you get more fresh fruits and vegetables living on a Social Security budget? Here are some tips to get you started:.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week that she is pushing to attach drug price cutting legislation to the major budget bill carrying most of President Biden's trillion economic agenda in the coming months..Medicaid currently covers about 60 percent of people in nursing homes. But to qualify, seniors in long-term care are required to "spend down" their life savings to the last ,000 and ,000 before Medicaid covers the bill. That won't apply to people younger than 65 under the new rules. Financial eligibility is based on modified adjusted gross income. Medicaid will no longer count how much applicants have in assets like savings and investments for this group of applicants as long as they aren't in long-term care. While that's likely to help more low-income seniors under 65 qualify for Medicaid, TSCL is concerned that it also opens the program to greater potential for gaming the system and fraud..A recent report by the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services has also found that high price drugs are affecting federal spending on drugs and increasing federal payments for Medicare Part D catastrophic coverage. Once people hit the catastrophic level of Part D coverage, beneficiaries pay a 5% coinsurance for drugs while the Federal Government pays the vast majority of the remaining costs. But there is no limit. The Inspector General's report said that federal payments for catastrophic coverage in 2015 exceeded .2 billion in 2015, which is more than triple the amount paid in 20Incredibly, only ten high-priced drugs accounted for nearly one-third of all drug spending in catastrophic coverage in 2015.