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TSCL enthusiastically supports these measures since they would go a long way in increasing access to more affordable prescription drugs for Medicare Part D beneficiaries. However, President Obama's budget request does include one reform to the Medicare program that TSCL opposes. It would increase means testing by requiring middle-class Medicare beneficiaries to pay higher Part B and Part D premiums. TSCL believes means testing within the program has gone far enough with recent increases under the Affordable Care Act, and we know that middle-class seniors simply cannot afford to pay higher out-of-pocket Medicare costs..Following the hearing, The Senior Citizens League submitted a proposal for strengthening and improving the DI program. We recommended the following seven policy changes based on the results of several surveys of TSCL's supporters:.Agreeing on methods of payment has proven to be the most difficult task. One conferee, Sen. Jon Kyl stated this week: "The way our Democratic colleagues have been approaching offsets, there's just not much of anything that they seem willing to agree to, so I'm pretty pessimistic that we can get that done.".If adopted, S. 269 would strengthen and reform the Social Security program by providing beneficiaries with a 2 percent benefit boost, basing cost-of-living adjustments on the CPI-E, creating a new minimum benefit set at 125 percent of the poverty line, and cutting taxes for beneficiaries. It would also apply the payroll tax to income over 0,000 and gradually increase the payroll tax rate to 7.4 percent..Nearly two-thirds of the spending on prescription drugs by older Americans is for out-of-pocket costs that include deductibles, co-pays and co-insurance. Since the start of Medicare Part D in 2006, out-of-pocket costs grew 188% or roughly 16% per year by the end of 2017, far exceeding the growth in Social Security benefits, that averaged just 1.9% per year over the same period..For roughly 10 million older Americans who have been retired since 2000, the buying power of their Social Security benefits only 'improved' by a meager 1 percent, from a loss of 34 percent over the period 2000 to 2018 to a loss of 33 percent from 2000- 201The loss occurred even though beneficiaries received a 2.8 percent annual cost - of - living adjustment for 2019..I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to put the soda aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over..Prior to 1984 Social Security benefits weren't taxed, and when the tax on benefits was first enacted in 1983, Congress sold it to the public saying it affected "high income" beneficiaries. At that time, only 10% of Social Security beneficiaries paid the tax. But during the 2015 tax season, an estimated 56% of Social Security beneficiary households will owe federal income taxes on part of their benefit income according to the Social Security Administration..One of the Biggest Financial Mistakes You Can Make In Retirement