Good news is hard to come by these days. While a pandemic has hit our nation at least once before, none of us alive have ever experienced anything like this. In addition to the concern over catching the virus, the economy continues to take a huge hit, and no one knows how long this will last or how bad it's going to get..The Velcro effect of anchoring can influence far more consequential decisions, in ways we may not even realize. Consider the process of determining the "right" retirement age:."Auxiliary Beneficiaries Who Do Not Have Their Own Social Security Number," Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, September 2014, A-01-14-14036..President George W. Bush proposed overhauling Social Security into a system of private accounts that would be invested in the stock market. The proposal never was passed into law, due to its unpopularity with the public. Before the proposal could gain traction, the Great Recession pounded the stock market, bringing a temporary end to the idea of investing Social Security payroll taxes into private individual retirement accounts. Between the peak of the stock market on October 9, 2007 and the low in March 2009, equity prices fell 50 percent, proving to many that the fixed benefit structure of Social Security is still desirable.."For this group of Medicare beneficiaries, this will also be the largest Medicare Part B increase in five years after premiums remained relatively flat since 2013," says Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare Policy Analyst for The Senior Citizens League. The jump in premiums is due to a special provision of law known as "hold harmless," which protected millions of Social Security recipients from reductions to their Social Security benefits in 2016 and 2017, when then the annual - cost - of - living adjustments were zero and just 0.3 percent, respectively..In January, one-third of all Medicare beneficiaries will see a Part B premium increase of 22 percent the highest increase in 27 years. Do you believe Congress should take action like it did last year to prevent the dramatic increase?.Abusive high interest rates offered to high-risk borrowers who are most likely to default. Does the lender suggest a loan because of "bad credit or no credit?" To qualify for the lowest loan costs, borrowers earn low interest rates with good credit histories. Stay clear of dealers and lenders who promise to put you behind the wheel regardless of your credit..Using this approach would put low to middle benefit recipients on more equal footing. The draw- back however, is that people with higher benefits would experience a benefit cut. They would not receive a COLA based on the benefit that they actually receive, and the dollar amount would be lower than what they would have received under current law. While that loss would be relatively small at first, it would compound and rapidly grow deeper over time. It would tend to lower the total amount of income that retirees with higher benefits could expect to receive from Social Security. This sort of proposed change to the COLA would quite likely encounter fierce push back, particularly from those affected, and even from middle-income people who delayed their retirement perhaps by as much as 4 years or more to allow their benefit to grow to its maximum..The public frequently confuses the two programs. Like Social Security, people become eligible for Medicare based on payroll tax withholdings from their earnings. Eligibility for Medicaid is based on low income. Medicaid is a combined state and federal program, in which the federal government pays roughly 60% of program costs for all whose income is low enough to qualify under current law. The new House law would end the open ended nature of funding and cap per person costs, adjusting reimbursements for inflation using the consumer price index.
