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Ending surprise billing has been a priority for TSCL this year so we are very hopeful this bill does, in fact, finally pass..This week, The Senior Citizens League's legislative team met with several Members of Congress and their top staff to discuss key issues affecting seniors. In addition, the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee held a hearing on the Medicare physician reimbursement system, and TSCL saw support grow for two key pieces of legislation..Forty-one million Americans participate in Part D. Medicare should be able to negotiate drug prices on their behalf just as the VA and private insurers do. Doing so would have the potential to lower drug costs for Part D participants and save Medicare money. For these reasons, I've introduced multiple bills to end Medicare's ban on price negotiation, and have urged President Trump not to renege on his campaign pledges supporting this..Social and recreational activities.As a result, some doctors are opting out of providing care to Medicare patients..The Social Security Trust Fund is the single biggest government account to which the U.S. Treasury owes money, with obligations currently totaling about .8 trillion dollars. From the mid 1980s until 2010, the Social Security Trust Funds received more revenues than required to pay benefits. Under current law, when surplus revenues are received, the Treasury issues special bonds or I.O.Us to the Trust Funds and excess revenues are used for other government spending. The government is required by law to pay interest on those I.O.U bonds..Could the annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustment be more fairly adjusted to provide a fixed annual dollar amount? If the dollar amount of the increase were to be based on middle income, then low- and middle-income beneficiaries would be on more equal footing, and higher income beneficiaries would not be hurt any worse than we typically are anyway like this year with a 1.3% COLA!.TSCL is also highly concerned that the candidates are not talking enough about protecting the annual COLA from cuts. During the recent 2011 debt limit talks with House Speaker John Boehner, President Obama floated a debt reduction plan that would have reduced government spending annual increase by using the chained Consumer Price Index to calculate the COLA..Ending the payroll tax, "would end Social Security as we now know it - as an 'earned' benefit that people pay for with taxes based on their wages," Johnson says. "If Social Security were funded out of general revenues instead, the program would be more like welfare - subject to the annual appropriations process, and the funding or repeal whims of Congress," she says.

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Medicare does not cover routine dental care that you normally receive for the health of your teeth. According to Medicare Interactive, a resource for answers to your Medicare questions maintained by the Medicare Rights Center, Medicare will not cover routine checkups, cleanings or fillings. In particular Medicare will not pay for dentures. Even if you have to have teeth extracted as preparation for a medical procedure, you are responsible for the cost of your dentures..While Congress was busy debating the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, the federal government hit the debt ceiling on March 15th. Since then, the Treasury Department has been using "extraordinary measures" like postponing contributions to retirement accounts for federal employees to buy time and prevent a default on federal debts, including the money that the U.S. Treasury owes to the Social Security Trust Fund..TSCL has long supported adding vision, dental and hearing benefits to Medicare, as well as supporting legislation to lower prescription drug prices. We are waiting to see what the final bills look like that come out of the House and Senate before we determine what kind of endorsement to give. … Continued

Education School Choice Scholarship Tax Credits

Editor's note: We regret the passing of Representative Elijah E. Cummings, who died October 17, 201He will be remembered for many things, including his stand on cutting high healthcare costs for American families..Through 2012, annual COLA increases have been tied to the increase in the consumer price index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. Deficit reduction plans would switch to a more slowly-growing CPI known as the "chained" CPI to determine COLAs. Traditional CPIs measure the increase in prices. But the chained CPI doesn't. It measures consumer spending when prices go up. For example if the price of beef goes up, it assumes people switch to less costly choices, like chicken. The chained CPI measures inflation as growing less slowly than traditional indexes..New eligibility rules make it considerably easier for millions of applicants, including seniors under the age of 65, who are too young for Medicare, to qualify for the program. But older seniors continue to have much more restrictive and stringent asset and savings tests to satisfy before they qualify for Medicaid, because the new rules don't apply to seniors age 65 and older. This sets up inequities in benefits between seniors like Notch Babies who are in their late 80s and 90s and who are more likely to be receiving long-term care, and other people younger than 65 who will benefit from the less stringent Medicaid qualification rules. … Continued