With 1.2 million supporters, The Senior Citizens League is one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups. Its mission is to promote and assist members and supporters, to educate and alert senior citizens about their rights and freedoms as U.S. Citizens, and to protect and defend the benefits senior citizens have earned and paid for. The Senior Citizens League is a proud affiliate of The Retired Enlisted Association. Visit for more information..The GPO reduces the Social Security benefit received by spouses and surviving spouses who also collect a government pension. Nine out of 10 public employees affected by the GPO lose their entire spousal benefit, even when their spouse paid Social Security taxes for many years. According to the Congressional Research Service, in 2018 approximately 6.6 million state and local government workers were in non- Social Security covered jobs. About 83% of all affected by the GPO are women..The Senior Citizens League was pleased to see support continue to grow for several of its key bills this week, and we thank the new cosponsors for their support. In the months ahead, we will continue to advocate for the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act, the Social Security 2100 Act, the Fair COLA for Seniors Act, and get adoption of legislation that would lower the cost of prescription drugs..In fact, unlike the surtax on high earners, this 3.8% net investment tax was not even a specific provision of Affordable Care Act. It was a provision of a separate bill, the Health Care Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010 which was passed about two days after the Affordable Care Act. By setting up the revenues so that they would flow to the General Fund, Congress by-passed earmarking those revenues for the Medicare Part A or Part B Trust Fund. That also means that, when those revenues are used for other purposes, the Medicare Trust Funds are not earning any interest from the federal government for the use of those funds..To even meet the statutory test of disability, the disabled worker must be unable to work or engage in any "substantial gainful activity." To qualify, disabled workers must have worked in the past, and be unable to work because of a medical condition that is expected to last more than one year or result in death..According to an article they wrote in The Hill, "Ten thousand Americans turn 65 every day, which means the number of Medicare beneficiaries who need easy access to vaccines is constantly increasing. Vaccines are particularly important for older adults because our immune systems weaken with time. Adults age 50 and over are particularly susceptible to many vaccine-preventable diseases and account for a disproportionate number of the deaths and illnesses they cause. This is why older adults are most at risk of developing severe illness from coronavirus..Unfortunately, the two other changes that took effect last month will not affect seniors as positively. Young retirees will be hit with an increase in the threshold for the itemized deductions of medical expenses. Those under the age of sixty-five will not be able to deduct unreimbursed medical expenses unless they account for at least 10 percent of adjusted gross income. Those over the age of sixty-five may continue using the 7.5 percent threshold until 2017; however, all seniors should beware that this tax provision may be modified or even eliminated as lawmakers continue to search for ways to reduce the deficit..The Obama Administration and proponents of Obamacare have continued to downplay the cancellations of the health insurance of 4.7 million individual policy-holders who received notices that our polices would be ending in 2014 because they didn't comply with the new healthcare law. I was able to temporarily renew my so-called "junk policy." I wanted to keep it because my deductible is 50% lower than the lowest deductible found on any comparable policy in my area on the exchange, and my current plan has a much less restrictive provider network. Most importantly my premium is about 60% lower than I would pay on the exchange, that's after the subsidy..Alexandria, VA Seniors will get one of the lowest cost-of-living adjustment paid in the past decade next January. But even so, COLAs remain a key target in post-election deficit reduction efforts, warns The Senior Citizens League, one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups. A plan that would slow the growth in annual COLAs is a key provision of major deficit reduction plans quietly under consideration in Congress.
