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Upon introducing the bill, Rep. Grayson said, "Our seniors built this nation. Our veterans sacrificed to defend it. We owe them so much. This modest raise is one way to repay them.".Sudden price spikes in older drugs are putting patients at risk of going without vital medicine. A new report by the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging uncovered an insidious business model that's leading to monopoly pricing power and astronomical price increases..TSCL Announces Support for New Legislation.The recent battle in Congress over lifting the debt limit contained mostly good news and some not so good news, for disabled and retired Americans. The legislation rolled back an unprecedented 52% spike in Medicare Part B premiums due to affect about 15.6 million Medicare recipients, and it prevented a 19% cut in Social Security Disability Insurance benefits due to occur later this year. But the legislation contained no Cost-of-Living Adjustment relief for 2016, and closed off one of the few claiming strategies that some Americans have to boost their Social Security payouts..However, for many retirees age 65 and up, most or even all their COLA was offset by rising Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket costs. A recent survey conducted by TSCL found that 48 percent of survey participants reported that, after the deduction for just the Part B premium, their COLA increased their Social Security benefit by less than Another 6 percent of survey respondents reported no increase to their net benefits at all..Reducing wait times. Inadequate funding and a growing hearing backlog have resulted in many DI applicants waiting longer than 600 days to be approved for the program. That's longer than some of them will live. All applicants deserve decisions on their benefit eligibility in a timely manner, and wait times of two years are simply unacceptable..Bill to Give Free Vaccines for Seniors.TSCL knows how crucial they are, and we pledge to keep fighting on your behalf. But your calls and emails to your Senators and Representatives on these issues that we write about are very important and can make a real difference..I have absolutely NO idea what I did with the car keys.

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A letter to the editor of The Topeka Capital Journal describes one such case of Medicare's over-compensation problem. The writer said that after receiving a back brace for treatment of spinal stenosis, the local back therapy center billed Medicare ,300. Yet the writer found the same brace from the same manufacturer online for Medicare approved 4 for the brace. The writer said that when he contacted the Medicare fraud unit he was told that 4 was the correct Medicare - approved payment to providers for the brace and was told there was nothing Medicare could do about the over-pricing..In addition to the care given at the hospital, the staff travels to nursing homes and other care facilities to administer needed medical tests. This hospital alone is responsible for more than 250,000 lab tests a year. When I spoke to the hospital's CEO he told me the hospital doesn't recover its costs on those tests. "We do them because the patients in the nursing homes need us," he said..Alexandria, VA majority of Social Security recipients would have to raid retirement savings or use a line of credit to meet even relatively modest financial emergencies, according to a new poll by The Senior Citizens League. When retirees were asked how they would raise ,000, 49 percent of respondents said they would take money from savings and another 30 percent said they would use a line of credit or borrow. … Continued

Poll Finding Kff Washington Post Health Care Workers

I was born May 10, 1960. Can you tell me my retirement age? I've read that the retirement age for Social Security is rising. How does this affect the amount that I receive in benefits? Can I still retire and receive benefits at age 62?.Providers couldn't send patients a balance bill for any amounts that exceed the cost-sharing requirement in those scenarios..Even the Committee For a Responsible Federal Budget, which proposes the change, suggests that lower-income people could be especially vulnerable under the proposal. The organization is recommending that Congress dedicate about billion in savings from lower spending on COLAs to "enhance various benefits for low-income individuals" saying "while chained CPI is the most accurate measure of inflation, it could result in some undesirable distributional consequences." … Continued