Legislation is currently under consideration in the House, The Social Security 2100 Act, that would adjust the income thresholds that subject Social Security benefits to taxation, from ,000 to ,000 for single filers and from ,000 to 0,000 for joint filers. According to a survey by The Senior Citizens League, 55 percent of survey participants support lifting the threshold for taxation of Social Security benefits to those levels, and only 12 percent oppose. The bill would pay for this as well as providing a boost in Social Security benefits and a more generous cost-of-living adjustment, by increasing the amount of wages subject to payroll taxes and by very gradually increasing the tax rate that workers and employers pay..To qualify, you must meet your state's income and asset limits. The information listed below show the 2019 baseline gross monthly income and asset limits but, even if your income or assets are slightly higher, you should still apply because these limits are somewhat higher for 2020, and some states have different guidelines..While Medicare covers emergency room care, unless your father was admitted to the hospital as an inpatient, Medicare Part A may not have covered his hospital stay. If emergency room doctors held your dad "under observation" or as an "outpatient," then his stay was covered under Medicare Part B, and there may have been expensive bills for that hospital stay depending on what other type of insurance your dad had in addition to Medicare. In addition, Medicare has strict rules about the length of stays in the hospital, in order to qualify for limited nursing home coverage for rehabilitation. Medicare does not cover most long - term stays in nursing homes..Recently a journalist, familiar with my estimates of cost-of-living adjustments, contacted me for my thoughts on the topic. Did I think we were staring down rising inflation? I told him that I needed to see more data..However, the swell of seniors who qualify for Medicare has outpaced the number of doctors available to treat them. Every day, an estimated 10,000 Americans turn 65 and become eligible for the government program, the Census Bureau reported..Increasing the payroll tax rate gradually by around 1 percent for both workers and employers. Doing so would amount to an additional 50 cents per week for the average American worker an amount that TSCL feels is reasonable..By Representative Elijah E. Cummings,.On Wednesday, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their annual reports on the financial outlook of both programs. As expected, they found that Social Security and Medicare are experiencing long-term financing shortfalls. Social Security's combined trust funds are expected to be depleted in 2034, which remains unchanged from last year's report. Medicare's Hospital Insurance trust fund is expected to be depleted in 2028 two years earlier than the trustees projected last year..The disparity between growth in the COLA and Medigap premiums is likely to be worse in 2020. "Inflation is lower this year, and we are estimating that the COLA is likely to be around 1.7 percent," Johnson says. "Nevertheless, we anticipate that Medigap premiums will continue to grow several times faster for a number of reasons," Johnson adds.
