If adopted, the Seniors Have Eyes, Ears, and Teeth Act would expand Medicare coverage to include essential hearing, vision, and dental care. Under current law, the traditional Medicare program is prohibited from covering these basic health care services, and millions of seniors living on fixed incomes cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket for routine care or assistive technologies like hearing aids..Enactment of Notch Reform remains a TSCL priority in 201Recently, TSCL legislative staff made personal visits to nearly every Member of the U.S. House, delivering petitions calling for the immediate enactment of The Notch Fairness Act H.R. 1001 and S. 11The legislation would provide Notch Babies born 1917 through 1926 with a choice of ,000 payable in four annual installments or an improved monthly benefit..This week, a bipartisan group of Senators sent a letter to the White House urging executive action on prescription drug prices. In addition, two key bills gained support in the House..In 2012, the GPO reduced, by nearly two-thirds, the Social Security benefits of nearly 600,000 surviving spouses who also collect a government pension. Nine out of 10 public employees affected by the GPO lose their entire spousal benefit, even though their spouse paid Social Security taxes for years..Burwell was expected to cruise through the confirmation process after she received an overwhelming display of bipartisan support during two Senate hearings that were held in May. However, a group of lawmakers set out to stall her confirmation's movement in the weeks leading up to the vote by submitting several complex inquiries about her perception of the ACA. In addition, almost every minute of the allotted debate time was used to discuss the ACA's implementation thus far, while Burwell received almost no criticism at all during the thirty hours..First, one new cosponsor Representative Debbie Dingell signed on to the bipartisan Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act, bringing the total up to fifty-one. If adopted, the bill would base Social Security cost-of-living adjustments on the more fair and adequate CPI-E. Currently, COLAs are based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners, and they fail to keep pace with the inflation experienced by older Americans..In addition, new retirees in 2017 or later would no longer have their benefits reduced by the WEP. Instead, all earnings would be considered when determining Social Security benefits. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady the sponsor of H.R. 711 explained on Tuesday, "No more unfair formula … Instead, we use the same benefit formula for everyone, looking at all earnings. And if some of those earnings aren't from Social Security covered employment, we adjust benefits to reflect the proportion that are.".Neighborhood, and safety concerns. Does your friend still feel safe living alone? Are there suspicious strangers stopping by asking for jobs like yard work or repaving her driveway? People who live alone are frequent targets of scam and thieves..If you currently have dental insurance, you may want to check with your plan to see what dental services are covered. If you do have some coverage now, consider getting necessary dental work before you start Medicare. You may also want to shop for Medicare Advantage health plan that covers routine dental services, but carefully first compare other costs and coverage for your specific health conditions and prescription needs.
