News

The Notch Fairness Act, H.R. 615, introduced by Representative Ralph Hall, would allow Notch Babies their choice of a higher monthly benefit or a lump-sum of ,000 payable in four annual installments. The legislation would allow eligible survivors of Notch Babies, persons who receive Social Security benefits based on the account of a Notch Baby, to receive up to 100% of the benefit payable to the deceased..TSCL believes that Medicare healthcare costs already cause many beneficiaries to shoulder a heavy financial burden in retirement. Cutting Medicare benefits, while shifting more costs to beneficiaries, would be the wrong way to strengthen program financing..The COLA isn't living up to the promise of protecting the buying power of your benefits, and retirees are getting short changed. We need to work together to enact legislation that will provide a more fair and adequate COLA. To learn how you can get involved visit:..TSCL questions whether the more widespread use of subjective criteria in disability determinations may be contributing to disability fraud. Recently, 134 people, including retired New York City police officers and firefighters, were charged in one of the largest disability frauds on record. Those indicted were charged with faking mental disabilities, like post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from responding to the 911 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in disability benefits..Committees Discuss Solutions to Opioid Epidemic.Over the years, TSCL surveys indicate that older Americans overwhelmingly oppose totally replacing Medicare with a system of private insurance plans. On the other hand, the design of traditional Medicare alone has a considerably high level of out-of-pocket spending, and no annual out-of-pocket limit. That leaves an important role for private insurers to fill in the gap with Medigap supplements or Medicare Advantage plans..Finally, because it started in China and it is a new strain of flu, health care officials in the U.S. are still learning about it and uncertainty exists..TSCL's annual senior survey, conducted from January through March of this year, confirmed that monthly household expenses made steep increases over the past year. The majority, 67%, indicated their monthly expenses went up by more than With today's Social Security benefit averaging ,320 per month, this is an unsustainable level of rising spending when there's just a 0.3% benefit increase to match.."Social Security Sees Slowdown in Retiree Rolls Amid COVID Deaths," Alexandre Tanzi, Bloomberg News, May 3, 202"U.S. Life Expectancy Drops A Year In Pandemic, Most Since WWII," Marilynn Marchione, Associated Press, February 17, 2021.