But in 2017, if your AGI remains ,000, you could deduct only allowable medical expenses over 10% of your AGI, or ,000. If you again had medical expenses of ,000, you would only be able to deduct ,000. In this example you you would pay taxes on an additional ,250..However, pharmaceutical companies have sent in multitudes of lobbyists to stop the House Democrats bill, arguing that it would deter the creation of new drugs and lead to suffering and death..Social Security and Medicare are promises to our seniors we cannot break. Seniors need to know they can trust their guaranteed benefits earned through hard work will not change..Refinance and renovate. If you find your current mortgage payment is too high, refinancing to get either a lower monthly payment or to take cash out may be an option. Before you refinance, have a long–term repayment plan, a budget, and you may want to discuss your needs with an independent financial advisor. If you are refinancing to renovate an older home, think long and hard about how much longer you plan to stay in your home, and how well your current housing will serve you as your health changes. Get bids from contractors, and be sure to include costs for new appliances, carpets, and fixtures. Will you have sufficient income and savings to cover a mortgage payment and still have money for repairs and maintenance ten or twenty years from now? Can you recover your renovation investment if you have to move and sell sooner than you planned? Take time to shop and carefully compare terms on loans - don't be hurried into making a decision. Loan officers always push you to "lock in a rate." Always ask for a "good faith" estimate and an estimate of the closing costs..Despite the coronavirus emergency, The Senior Citizens League is continuing its fight for you to protect your Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits. We've had to make some adjustments in the way we carry on our work, but we have not, and will not stop our work on your behalf..While you should check with a professional financial advisor, you and your husband still have the right to claim spousal benefits only, when you turn 6Under the new law changes, while you couldn't apply for spousal benefits, based on a suspended application, your husband can apply for spousal benefits based on your full retirement age benefit, using a restricted application while his own benefit continues to grow. He would receive half of your benefit, or about 5 per month, until he claims his own retirement benefit. Together the two of you would receive ,215 per month, which is better than the ,150 you alone were hoping to get as a spousal benefit. Then, when he turns 70, he can claim his full benefit of about ,100 per month..The Senior Citizens League enthusiastically supports the CARES Act and the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act, and we were pleased to see support grow for them this week. For more information about these and other bills that have been backed by The Senior Citizens League, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website..He noted that a vaccine's rarer side effects are often not recognized until it is put into broad use. To discover an adverse outcome that only occurs in one person in 100,000, for instance, a company would need to test it in 384,250 people from broad backgrounds and with a variety of medical conditions..This week, one new cosponsor Rep. Glenn Thompson signed on to the Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act, bringing the total up to forty-nine. If signed into law, the PRIME Act would take a number of steps to comprehensively prevent fraud, waste, and abuse within the two programs a problem that TSCL believes must be addressed in order to ensure that scarce program dollars are being spent properly.
