House speaker Paul Ryan's proposal to overhaul Medicare by providing beneficiaries a subsidy or voucher to shop for private insurance on a federal health exchange has been included in House budget blue prints numerous times, but voters are overwhelmingly opposed to the idea. The plan would give private insurance plans a greater role in Medicare, and beneficiaries would be given a subsidy to shop for insurance coverage. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the plan would shift a growing share of the costs to beneficiaries..His renewed call for the cut comes only a few weeks after the annual reports regarding the financial stability of the Social Security and Medicare programs were issued by their respective boards of trustees. As we reported at the time, both programs are facing insolvency, albeit at different times..Addressing prescription drug prices is also one of my top priorities as Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The Committee launched a comprehensive investigation of the prescription drug industry's pricing practices in January of this year, focusing on the drugs that are the costliest to Medicare. In January I convened the Committee's first hearing of the 116th Congress on this topic, inviting AARP's National Volunteer President to testify about the challenges seniors face in affording their drugs..In addition, one new cosponsor Rep. Marcy Kaptur signed on to Rep. Peter DeFazio's No Loopholes in Social Security Taxes Act, bringing the total to twenty-eight. Rep. DeFazio's bill would subject all income over 0,000 to the Social Security payroll tax, reportedly adding another fifty years to the solvency of the Trust Fund. Currently, the payroll tax is capped at 3,700, and no income over that amount is taxed..It is unfair and unjust to expect American seniors to settle for a COLA that is less than what they have spent their entire lives working for, especially when America's seniors have to account for new expenses to keep them safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is why it is critical to base COLAs on an index that reflects what seniors actually spend their money on. It is time for Congress to take action and give our nation's seniors what they deserve..2017 TSCL Senior Survey, "5th Annual Consumer Survey on Social Security," Nationwide Retirement Institute, April 201"25% of High Earners Have a Huge Misunderstanding About Social Security," Retire With Money newsletter, Elizabeth O'Brien, Time.com, Money, April 25, 2018..TSCL sent a letter to House and Senate leaders asking for their support for a more fair and adequate Social Security COLA. Stated TSCL's Chairman Arthur Cooper, "Eighty-six percent of TSCL's members and supporters believe Congress must pass legislation tying the annual COLA to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly. Doing so would more accurately base COLAs on the spending patterns of seniors instead of the spending patterns of young, urban workers, and would go a long way in improving the adequacy of Social Security benefits.".In the final days of the holiday recess, many Members of Congress will be holding town hall meetings and attending local events in their home states and districts. The Senior Citizens League encourages its members and supporters to attend these events and to ask important questions about the BCRA and its potential impact on older Americans, like the following two….If signed into law, the CPI-E Act would amend the Social Security Act with regard to annual cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security and Medicare benefits. Currently, the COLA is based upon the spending patterns of young, urban workers, but Rep. DeFazio's bill would require that COLAs be based upon the way seniors spend their money. The COLA that seniors currently receive does not accurately reflect how they must spend their money, and TSCL estimates that a senior who retired with average benefits in 1984 would have received ,723.16 more through 2011 had the CPI-E been used. We are very supportive of Rep. DeFazio's bill, and we were pleased to see one new cosponsor sign on this week.
