Supreme Court Rules on Immigration Orders.More than 1,057 respondents participated in The Senior Citizens League's annual senior survey, which was conducted from January through March of this year. Participants confirmed that monthly household expenses made steep increases over the past year, far in excess of the dollar amount that their COLAs increased benefits. More than half, 56%, indicated their monthly expenses went up by more than Yet 50% of survey respondents said that their COLA increased benefits less than per month, after the increased Part B premium for 2018 was deducted from their Social Security benefits..There are several types of Medicare Advantage plans, and not all are available in all areas. Many are health maintenance organizations, but there are also preferred provider organizations and special needs plans, among others. Under traditional Medicare with a Medigap plan, you may go to any doctor who accepts Medicare. But in a Medicare Advantage HMO plan you need to use network healthcare providers in order to get coverage. If you are treated by non-network providers, you would be responsible for 100% of the out-of-pocket costs, and Medicare would not cover the cost of the claim. If the plan is a PPO, however, you would have greater flexibility to go out of network, but you would pay higher co-pays or co-insurance. Before selecting any Medicare Advantage plan, check the lists of network doctors, hospitals and other providers! It is not unheard of for Medicare Advantage plans to market to people who live a good distance from the nearest in network health care provider..The government negotiates prescription drug prices for Medicaid and for veterans, but it is barred from doing so for Medicare Part D beneficiaries. As a result, senior citizens enrolled in Part D often pay much higher prices for their prescriptions than other Americans. Will you support the bipartisan Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act ?.The legislation prevents a 19% Social Security disability benefit cut by a short-term reallocation of payroll tax revenue in 2016 through 201This would be sufficient to pay benefits until 2022 and would not affect the 2034 depletion date of the Social Security retirement trust fund, according to Social Security's Chief Actuary..Government and private economists are warning of major financial turmoil and another recession if Congress can't get their act together to address the rising level of federal debt that is estimated to equal 70 percent of our total national output by the end of the year. Our nation's ability to pay the interest and its debt obligations has everything to do with our benefits..Sen. Lindsey Graham said, "I do believe we should be helping people on Social Security because the price of food has gone up and I don't see any end in sight," he said. "A payment to Social Security recipients who are on fixed income of ,000 and below might make sense.".The TSCL poll found seniors were closely split over the two other leading approaches to address the disability program's solvency. Forty-eight percent favored tightening Social Security's disability eligibility requirements and conducting more annual eligibility reviews to reduce fraud. Fifty-one percent favor requiring high wage earners to pay Social Security taxes on all of their incomes. "TSCL believes that the only way Congress will forge an agreement is through bipartisan efforts that use a combination of the two approaches," Cates states. What do you think about issues affecting seniors? Take a poll. Visit TSCL's website at..View TSCL's entire plan for fixing the Social Security Disability Insurance program.
