In her new role as CMS administrator, Verma will report to Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who has authored several Medicare reform plans in recent years. His proposals would increase the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 while adopting a "premium support" model, where beneficiaries would be given vouchers from the federal government to purchase private health insurance..Help! My Mentally Disabled Brother Was Target Of A Predatory Auto Loan!.According to an article by StateNews.com, pharmaceutical manufacturers have been pouring millions of dollars into this year's Congressional campaigns..On Wednesday, with a vote of 236-191, lawmakers in the House passed a .7 billion spending bill that would fund DHS through the remainder of the fiscal year. They also passed five amendments to the bill that would address President Obama's recent immigration orders..According to the Congressional Research Service, for an age 65 retiree with average wages, a maximum benefit disparity of 10% would have arisen between the highest benefit under the old rules and the lowest benefit under the new rules if the 1977 assumptions had materialized. Under the economic conditions that actually arose, the disparity was 25%-two and one half times greater..TSCL continues to fight the agreement and supports measures that would block it from taking effect should it be sent to Congress for approval. TSCL continues to educate new lawmakers about the issue and recently filed a third Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to force the U.S. government to release documents related to the agreement, include those concerning the estimated cost to the Social Security Trust Fund..For more information about town hall meetings near you during this week's holiday recess, call the local offices of your Members of Congress. For contact information, click HERE.."TSCL believes voters need to understand that one of the most likely actions that Congress may take is to 'borrow' or otherwise reallocate payroll taxes originally destined for retirement benefits, to cover disability benefits instead," Cates notes. Congress has taken such action six times in the past to delay exhaustion of the DI trust fund.[ii] Doing so would give Congress more time to fix the system, but the move would worsen retirement program financing more quickly. If implemented, the Social Security Chief Actuary estimates that the retirement fund would only have enough revenues to cover 75% of costs by depletion, at which time retirees would face benefit cuts of 25%. "This raises an important question," Cates notes. "Would today's retirees go for a bailout of the disability system using money that's supposed to be for their own retirement benefits?" Cates asks..By Jessie Gibbons, TSCL Legislative Director
