News

TSCL has been pushing members of Congress to include legislation to reduce the price of drugs and pass legislation to deal with the practice of surprise medical billing. We were hoping those issues would be addressed at the same time as the legislation to extend the federal health programs mentioned above.."Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, health care professionals will reportedly spend less time filling out paperwork and more time focusing on delivering the best care for patients," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius..For the past 16 years, Johnson, has been helping friends and family members with the job of comparing health and drug plans. "It takes patience, but this is likely to be the best return on comparison shopping that you do all year," Johnson says. Here are some pointers:."Notch Babies are now at the age where they are more likely to have chronic health problems and require multiple prescriptions," says TSCL Chairman Larry Hyland. "They are finding it difficult to make their lower benefits cover rising Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket costs, let alone all their other rising costs. The time has come to settle this," Hyland says..There was no Cost of Living Adjustment, or COLA, applied to Social Security benefits for 2011, and that may cause great concern for senior citizens and those who care for them. This will leave 54 million beneficiaries who receive a Social Security check each month without an increase..According to Rep. Valadao, approximately 13 million Americans experienced some form of identity theft in 2014, resulting in a loss of billion. Upon introducing it, he said: "The fact that this crime affects children, seniors, and veterans makes it even more imperative that the federal government does everything in its power to prevent identity theft.".Despite the proposed decrease in funding, many feel that the plan from Chairman Rogers is a positive sign. The cut is negligible when compared to last year's proposal for fiscal 2014, the House and Senate committees were more than billion apart in their Labor-HHS-Education funding plans. The minor cut for fiscal 2015 likely means that appropriators in the House are hoping to compromise with the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has not yet released a proposal for the contentious measure..If your employer has less than 20 employers, beware. By law Medicare is the "first payer" of health insurance policies of small companies. This means you and your wife will need to enroll in Medicare in order for your healthcare claims to be covered. If you work for a company with less than 20 employees and try to file a claim, your insurer can deny it because Medicare is supposed to pay since you are Medicare-eligible. Because you and your wife are over 65, the government considers you Medicare-eligible, whether you have enrolled or not..While your Members of Congress are in their home states and districts, it is the perfect time to approach them at local events and request their support for a fair Social Security cost-of-living adjustment and other key issues.