Recently we asked for your stories and comments on how rising prescription drug costs impact you. The following story illustrates new administrative efforts by Medicare to "educate" beneficiaries about their options for less expensive prescription meds, by sending out letters listing lower cost medications. The question we need to ask our lawmakers is why is this necessary? Does the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services believe we are impoverishing ourselves by using more expensive drugs if a less expensive alternative was effective, to begin with? Unfortunately, sometimes the older, less expensive drugs don't work as well, and with metastatic cancer drugs, quality of life can be at stake. Our sincere thank you to Janice S. a retiree living in Illinois, for sharing the following.."Caught Up In A Medicare Drug Fraud," Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein, ProPublica, December 31, 2013..According to Bloomberg News, "The bipartisan agreement is between the top Democrats and Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor committees, as well as the leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee..Doesn't Social Security pay money to many people who are not really paying into it? - L.V..Flag recurring costs: Flag costs that you have on a regular basis like premiums, prescriptions, over-the-counter meds, and supplements. These you can automatically figure into your monthly budget..Changes in health. Chronic conditions like diabetes, pulmonary disease, dementia, and others, worsen over time. People with those conditions need increasing help. A sudden hospitalization could be life threatening if she has no one to care for her when she comes home..Does it make sense to allow so many to become entitled based on illegal benefits? Previous estimates by TSCL and other policy groups project that the cost could add hundreds of billions of dollars to a program that is now in deficit..The Senior Citizens League strongly endorses legislation that would guarantee that COLAs are no lower than 3% and is working with Congress for the passage of an emergency COLA benefit boost for 2021..Over the past year, some of the most difficult emails that TSCL received came from those of you who describe wrenching situations caused in large part by high healthcare costs and emergency needs that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic and the weather-related disasters of 2020. That has sometimes included taking in adult children and your grandchildren, and often providing financial assistance from your own savings.

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For more information about town hall meetings near you during this week's holiday recess, call the local offices of your Members of Congress. For contact information, click HERE..back to your doctor to see whether there is a less costly prescription that you.Nevertheless, Senate Leader Harry Reid recently went as far as to imply that people like me are lying, saying that "There are plenty of horror stories being told. All of them are untrue, but they're being told all over America." But I'm not making this up. I take this information directly from the government's own website. … Continued

Civil And Criminal Justice

On Thursday, Senate lawmakers passed legislation to suspend the debt ceiling until next spring, fund the government through December 8th, and provide .25 billion in relief to victims of Hurricane Harvey. At the time of writing this week's legislative update, the House had not yet voted on the legislation, but it is expected to pass with bipartisan support by the end of Friday afternoon..This issue gets considerable attention from Members of Congress and the media. These findings are a huge red flag that the standard of living of older Americans is eroding, and this is true not only for lower income households, but for all retirees, because healthcare costs are growing much more rapidly than COLAs. To provide greater retirement security, Social Security benefits need to be boosted, and Medicare cost increases need to be slowed in a way that saves billions without cutting benefits. The Senior Citizens League is supporting the Emergency Social Security COLA for 2021 Act, which would replace the 1.3 percent COLA with a more adequate 3 percent COLA in 202How were you affected by healthcare costs in 2020? Please take our TSCL's 2021 Senior Survey..The last time the Medicare Part A Trust Fund was forecast to become insolvent was in 200At the time, the Part A Trust Fund was forecast to become insolvent by 201Lucky for us that never happened - in 2017 at least. Congress enacted the 2010 Affordable Care Act which changed Medicare taxes in two ways. It added a 0.9% surtax to the amount of Medicare payroll taxes paid by high earning individuals with wages over 0,000. This was on top of the 1.45% that workers currently pay on their wages. A second provision affecting the more affluent, imposed a 3.8% tax on a portion of net investment income. Estates and trusts can also be subject to this tax. … Continued

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