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Social Security disability benefits are financed through the taxes paid by workers and their employers on earnings up to a cap of 7,000. Of the 6.2% that each pays, 0.9% goes to Disability Insurance and the rest goes to pay retirement and survivors benefits..The Office of the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration recently said that office is assessing the impact from COVID-19, but the smaller than expected year over - year increase appears to be due to excess deaths. About 80% of the deaths from COVID-19 were people age 65 and older - more than 374,004 people, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention..According to a report from the Senate Special Committee on Aging released this year, older Americans lose approximately billion each year to financial scams and abuse. It's appalling. It's offensive. It's unacceptable. And I'm working to do something about it..In addition to the care given at the hospital, the staff travels to nursing homes and other care facilities to administer needed medical tests. This hospital alone is responsible for more than 250,000 lab tests a year. When I spoke to the hospital's CEO he told me the hospital doesn't recover its costs on those tests. "We do them because the patients in the nursing homes need us," he said..But that's not all. Congressional Democrats also want to add dental, vision and hearing coverage to Medicare but that goal is running into resistance from powerful health industry lobbies..Johnson compiled a list of ten of the fastest-rising retiree costs based on Consumer Price Index data from October 2017 through October 2018..My Ex-Spouse Died. Would I Qualify For Widow's Benefits Even Though I'm Re-married?.The .5 billion for VA health care improvements will now be paid for with savings elsewhere in the budget. However, one Democratic aide said the funds used to pay for the program were gimmicks that do not harm spending in vital programs..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.