Extremely low Social Security cost of living adjustments have significantly impacted the retirement income of almost two-thirds of all older Americans, according to a new analysis by The Senior Citizens League. "People who have been receiving Social Security benefits since 2009 - an estimated 64 percent of all beneficiaries - have been hit with the full brunt of extremely low COLAs over the past nine years," says The Senior Citizens League's Social Security policy analyst Mary Johnson. "Nine years is about one third the length of a typical retirement," Johnson points out. "Younger retirees since 2009 are also feeling the pain," she notes..Again, those projections were made prior to the effects of the pandemic. You can be sure when this is all over, the projections will be much worse..Without legislation to remedy this flaw in the benefit formula, the reduction to the Social Security retirement benefits of these 4 million people would be permanent. Assuming that benefits would be reduced by 9.1%, a calculation for TSCL indicates that a 62 - year old with middle-earnings who retired in 2020 would typically expect a benefit of ,565 at full retirement age, but now would only receive ,423 instead. Over the course of a 25-year retirement, or by the time these individuals reach 87, the total loss of retirement income from expected Social Security benefits would be more than ,000..You have a face-to-face meeting with a doctor within 90 days before starting home healthcare, or 30 days after the first day you receive care..The best way to help Social Security and Medicare is get people off the rolls who don't belong there - the non-citizens who have come here illegally, and their dependents who have never paid into Social Security. Wouldn't there be enough to take care of the seniors we already have if we did?.Even when you spend ,000 out-of-pocket, there are still out-of-pocket costs. At the catastrophic level of coverage there are smaller co-pays or 5% coinsurance, which can further lead to substantial out-of-pocket spending. In 2015, for example, Part D enrollees with out-of-pocket costs above the catastrophic threshold comprised just 2 percent of all enrollees, but their spending totaled 20 percent of enrollees' total out-of-pocket spending for the year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation..The Supreme Court recently upheld the Affordable Care Act. While most people understood that the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of the "individual mandate," many seniors may not have thought much about how the court's decision would affect Medicare. The decision maintains both new senior benefits and 0 billion in Medicare spending cuts over the next eight years. Here's a list of major provisions that affect seniors:.Recently my mother got a notice from Social Security saying that her income is over the limit, and now she's paying much higher Medicare premiums than last year. Normally her income is modest, but in 2009 we sold her home after she moved into an assisted living facility. Her monthly Part B premium rose from .40 to 1.50. Her Part D coverage had increased by per month and the government tacked on a surcharge of more than doubling the premium that she paid last year. Altogether, my mother's Social Security was reduced by .10 a month! Someone told me this was part of healthcare reform. Why was there no advance notice to allow families to plan for this?."The switch looks deceptively small on paper," says TSCL's Executive Director Shannon Benton. "But it would have a big impact on Social Security income," she says.
