As we've previously reported, the Senate will return for votes starting on September 15 while the House won't be back to begin voting until September 20. Various Congressional committees are back at work this week, however..The Senior Citizens League supports legislation that would provide a more fair and adequate COLA so that seniors living on fixed incomes can better afford rising costs like home heating oil. To learn more, visit..Stay Informed and Sign up for the TSCL Newsletter.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..Legislation that would tie COLAs to an index that measures inflation experienced by older households, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, has recently been reintroduced. The CPI-E tends to grow more quickly that the CPI-W in most, but not every, year. "2021 is one of those times when gasoline prices soar and the CPI-W would yield the higher COLA," Johnson says. "If the COLA for 2022 were based on the CPI-E, we estimate it would be 5 percent compared to the 6.2 percent that we estimate for the CPI-W," Johnson notes. The Senior Citizens League works to protect and strengthen Social Security benefits and program financing..Health insurers would directly pay providers the difference between the out-of-network rate and the patient's cost-sharing amount for those services. In states that don't have their own systems, the out-of-network rate would be the amount that the provider and insurer agree to through an open negotiation process, or the amount set through an arbitration process..Congress still must fund the federal government for FY202They are supposed to do that by the end of September since the new fiscal year starts October But that hasn't been accomplished for the last several years and it is almost certain they won't do it again this year..This week, one new cosponsor Rep. Alcee Hastings signed on to Rep. Grace Meng's Notch Fairness Act. The bill now has ten cosponsors. If signed into law, it would provide modest compensation to victims of the Social Security Notch, or those who were born between 1917 and 192Just years before they were set to retire, these individuals learned that they would have significantly lower benefits than originally anticipated. The problem has grown and compounded over time, and TSCL believes that in order to make the program more equitable, some compensation for the injustice should be provided. We enthusiastically support Rep. Meng's Notch Fairness Act, and we were pleased to see one more lawmaker sign on as a cosponsor this week..CMS plans to automatically enroll the seniors in participating states with an "opt-out" provision. But TSCL has concerns as to whether beneficiaries will be able to choose the best form of care and how they would be able to switch plans or return to traditional Medicare.
