Health Reform Issue Brief How Are Hospitals Faring Under The Affordable Care Act Early Experiences From Ascension HealthTSCL recently delivered letters to every Member of Congress calling on them to support legislation that would provide a more fair and adequate COLA. "Congress created the automatic COLA in 1972 to help benefits keep up with inflation. But according to our research, COLAs are failing to keep up with the rising costs seniors are facing. Since 2000 Social Security benefits have lost 30 percent of their buying power, and in the last year alone they have lost 7 percent."."This is an important perspective to have in our current legislative environment," says Johnson. Some Members of Congress are discussing indexing the COLA to the more slowly growing "chained" consumer price index. "The current index used to calculate the COLA already understates inflation experienced by retired beneficiaries, because it doesn't adequately represent the spending of older consumers," Johnson explains. "A more slowly growing index would only exacerbate the problem of maintaining the buying power of Social Security benefits over time," she says..Here are three good books to help you get up to speed: … Continued
2020 Census Whats At Stake For States Oas Episode 60This week, TSCL endorsed the Social Security Fairness Act, which was recently introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Rodney Davis with the bipartisan support of seventy-seven original cosponsors..Wrong answer, Mr. Mulvaney..Month after month, year after year, unbeknownst to most of the public, thousands of people with no Social Security number are receiving Social Security benefits. The beneficiaries don't qualify for benefits based on their own work record. Eighty-three percent of them don't even reside in this country. A few of those receiving benefits are even dead. … Continued
