The ASPCA website, ASPCA.org, has information, including a helpful chart that can help you estimate the costs of owning a pet..Flu vaccination has many benefits. It has been shown to reduce flu illnesses and also to reduce the risk of more serious flu outcomes that can result in hospitalization or even death in older people. Flu vaccination has been shown in several studies to reduce severity of illness in people who get vaccinated but still get sick..There's an overwhelming flood of retirement information targeted to higher -earning upper income Americans, but just about everyone else with more modest incomes are without the guidance to help make the best retirement decision..Boosting benefits across-the-board by approximately 2% for all Social Security recipients;.A majority of the 54 million senior and disabled Americans who receive Social Security depend on it for at least 50 percent of their total income, and one in three beneficiaries rely on it for 90 percent or more of their total income..So, we wanted to close this week's update with some good news, as reported by Bloomberg News..Now, 18 years later, TSCL is hopeful that 2021 will be the year when Congress finally enacts legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. This change is supported by about 85% of participants in TSCL's Senior Surveys. In 2019, Congress came very close to passing such a bill. In 2019, the House passed legislation, that would have allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices, but was loathed by the pharmaceutical industry. It stalled in the Senate late in 2019 when Senate leadership refused to take up the bill..At issue is whether illegal immigrants would be able to benefit for Social Security and Medicare purposes from jobs worked prior to gaining work authorization. Senators Orrin Hatch and Marco Rubio introduced an amendment that would give the Social Security program protections to prevent payment of benefits based on prior illegal work. The amendment was strongly supported and endorsed by TSCL..Finally, the Protecting and Preserving Social Security Act gained one new cosponsor in Senator Claire McCaskill, who brings the new cosponsor total to three. If signed into law, S. 1600 would base the Social Security COLA on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly. The bill would also ensure that high income earners pay their fair share of taxes into Social Security.
