News

TSCL was pleased to see seven new cosponsors sign on to the bill this week, and we will continue to advocate for it on Capitol Hill through the remainder of the 114th Congress.."Many older taxpayers probably did not even know they were getting a medical expense tax break for 2017, or this year," Johnson says. The 7.5 percent of AGI threshold was unchanged from what taxpayers age 65 and older paid in 2016, and before. That threshold, however, was formerly scheduled to rise to 10% of AGI in 201"Meanwhile taxpayers younger than 65 could only deduct medical expenses in excess of 10% under the former tax law, and so for that crowd it may have been noticed as a tax break," Johnson notes..Are Members of Congress Giving Up Their Health Insurance for Obamacare?.While about 70% of Medicare beneficiaries will see no Medicare Part B increase in premiums this year, the legislation reduced monthly Part B premiums for the 30% of beneficiaries who faced the jump of 52%. That group, who are not protected by the Social Security "hold harmless" provision, will pay a base premium of 1.80 per month instead of an estimated 9 this year. Higher income beneficiaries who are not protected by hold harmless pay an additional surcharge on the base premium amount. The legislation also reduced an increase in the Part B deductible from a projected 3 to 6..Under growing pressure to reduce the federal deficit, the prospect of major Social Security and Medicare cuts is the greatest it's been in almost three decades. The recent debt limit deal calls for a bipartisan committee that has until Thanksgiving to come up with a plan to cut the deficit by .2 trillion. TSCL believes that the committee would very likely include a change to a more slowly growing consumer price index that would cut annual-cost-of-living adjustments. There are also proposals that would require seniors to pay a bigger portion of their Medicare costs..Some home healthcare can be deductible. In order for home healthcare expenses to be deductible, those who require the care must be unable to perform two or more of six activities of daily living and have a plan of care from a physician that specifies help with these tasks..Conservatives and budget hawks have long sought to roll back large government programs like Medicare and Medicaid to rein in the debt..Yet even a "limited approach" like this one could create huge new long-term costs for Social Security and Medicare. Citizenship is not a requirement to claim Social Security benefits. Work authorization, like the type under discussion in the House, is all that immigrants would need to at some point file claims..That is only one of the issues involved with high drug prices, and the drug companies aren't the only issue.