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Here are three things you can start doing right now to lower your Medicare costs.This may be difficult to believe, but consumer price index data suggests that the annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2020 could be close to zero next year - a mere 0.5 percentage point. This comes even as the costs of goods and services used by retirees are shooting upward according to responses to TSCL's 2019 Senior Survey..TSCL is troubled to learn that earlier this week the President tweeted that a short-term payroll tax cut should be considered, fueling a conversation around the potential for a temporary stimulus package..Under the proposal by Congressman Paul Ryan, now Chairman of the House Budget Committee, and Alice Rivlin, a monetary and fiscal policy expert, Medicare would be changed from a system that pays per procedure, to one that would provide a fixed amount of money or voucher, to private health plans to provide coverage..In the year you reach your full retirement age, 66 and 6 months, you may earn a little more. The Social Security Administration will deduct in benefits for every earned above a slightly higher annual exempted amount. For example, in 2021 beneficiaries who reach full retirement age may earn ,520 or ,210 per month..The income thresholds for the federal poverty levels are adjusted using a somewhat faster growing index than the one used to determine the COLA. Unlike the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, which does not survey the costs of people over the age of 62, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers CPI-U includes the spending patterns of both younger workers and people over the age of 6Consequently the federal poverty limits increase somewhat faster than the CPI-W and today's COLAs. The 2016 poverty levels reflect a 0.1% increase over 2015 rather than zero like the Social Security COLA..In most years, seniors receive a small increase in their Social Security checks, intended to help them keep up with rising costs. But since 2000, the Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustment has increased benefits just 38 percent while typical senior expenses have jumped 81 percent, more than twice as fast. Inflation has been at historic lows in recent years and seniors received a 1.7 percent COLA this year..If signed into law, the Social Security Preservation Act would require that all annual surpluses of the Social Security Trust Funds be invested in marketable interest-bearing obligations of the United States or obligations guaranteed by the United States. It also outlines certain requirements for determining the annual surplus of the Trust Funds. With the Social Security Trust Funds set to expire in 2033, TSCL believes that it is now more important than ever for Congress to protect and secure the program's monies. Rep. Paul's bill would do just that, and we were pleased to see support grow for it this week.."Prior Authorization in Medicare Advantage Plans: How Often Is It Used?" Gretchen Jacobson and Tricia Neuman, Kaiser Family Foundation, October 201"Medicare Advantage Appeal Outcomes and Audit Findings Raise Concerns About Service and Payment Denials," Office of the Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services, September 25, 2018.

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We have been hearing from hundreds of you who are watching the inflation numbers and eagerly looking forward to getting a high inflation boost next year. But a number of you point out an urgent problem that occurs when COLAs raise the income of people with lower incomes. The higher inflation boost can sometimes disqualify people of modest means from receiving low-income benefits such as food stamps or rental assistance..Now a leading budget policy organization is pushing Congress to fully offset the cost of building the wall and other new spending and tax cuts with entitlement cuts - specifically, adopting the more slowly-growing Chained Consumer Price Index to calculate annual Cost of Living Adjustments. That's a change that would cut federal spending by about 0 billion, the group estimates..As with Social Security and Medicare long-term viability, reducing the high costs of drugs is also at the top on TSCL's agenda this year. These are complicated problems but Congress must find a way to deal with them and TSCL will be fighting for you as these debates continue. … Continued

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Start watching the mail for your new Medicare card. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services will start mailing the cards this month and plans to replace all existing Medicare cards over the next year - by April of 2019..A Kaiser Family Foundation study has found that ten percent of prescription drugs make up the majority of Medicare drug spending..The Social Security Administration announced today that the 2020 COLA will be just 1.6 percent, continuing the worrisome trend in which COLAs have averaged just 1.4 percent from 2000 to 20"Adequate COLAs are critical to retirement security," says Mary Johnson, a Social Security policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League. "Social Security is one of the only types of retirement income that provides this essential protection against rising costs. "When a retiree's costs rise faster than their COLA, the buying power of Social Security benefits erodes, leaving people with a benefit that doesn't go as far as it did when they first retired," Johnson notes. According to research by Johnson, Social Security benefits have lost 33 percent of buying power since 2000. … Continued

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