This week, lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill to begin the "lame duck" session of Congress. Those in the Senate plus Republicans in the House held leadership elections for the 116th Congress. In the Senate, key leadership positions will remain largely unchanged in 201Senator Mitch McConnell will once again serve as the Senate Majority Leader, while Senator Chuck Schumer will remain the Minority Leader in the 116th Congress..The rationale for both the WEP and the GPO - that the Social Security benefit formula is overly generous to these individuals and that they are reaping unintended benefits - is very hard to justify today. In fact, Social Security benefits are quite modest when compared to the national pension systems of other developed nations. The modified benefit formulas used under each of these two provisions substantially reduces the benefit that workers were counting on, but these are benefits that were earned and paid for by Social Security taxes..Medicare Part B premiums are getting set to make one of the biggest jumps in 14 years, according to new analysis from The Senior Citizens League. While the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment will increase benefits by 1.6 percent in 2020, Medicare Part B premiums are climbing by 6.7 percent, "more than four times faster than the COLA," says Medicare and Social Security policy analyst, Mary Johnson..Since it was first signed into law over 75 years ago, Social Security has kept tens of millions of senior citizens and disabled Americans of all ages out of poverty and ensured that they could live dignified and independent lives. I believe that the COLA is an essential part of Social Security that must be calculated accurately. That is why I have fought to protect seniors by introducing the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act in successive Congresses. This bill would give our seniors a Social Security COLA that actually reflects their cost of living..However, as you may already suspect, that's not necessarily the way our government calculates the change in price. The federal government doesn't simply calculate the difference in cost of navel oranges from one period to another. If another type of orange, such as Valencia is priced lower, at .39 per pound in June when navel oranges are .49, then our government assumes you buy the lower-cost orange, whether or not you actually do so. The price change from .39 in December of 2018 for the navel oranges to .39 in June of 2019 for the Valencias would show no price increase at all for oranges. It would show prices are flat, and that would be reflected then in the overall CPI. One obvious problem is the fact that consumers can't always readily substitute lower-costing items in certain expenditure categories, especially for things like medical services and prescription drugs..According to The Social Security Trustees, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund is expected to become fully insolvent by the end of next year. Without Congressional action, Social Security trustees estimate there won't be enough tax revenues to pay full scheduled disability program benefits at the end of 201More than 10 million disabled beneficiaries and their dependents face cuts of about 19% in their monthly payments if nothing is done..If signed into law, the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act would amend the Social Security Act with regard to the annual cost-of-living-adjustment Social Security beneficiaries receive. Currently, the COLA is based upon the spending patterns of young, urban workers as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics the CPI for Urban Wage Earners. This legislation would calculate the COLA based on the spending patterns of seniors, or by using the BLS tracked CPI-E..A family relative helps care for my son and keeps my Mom company during the day. She is paid minimum wage through a state Medicaid family caregiver program for which my son is eligible. This program is keeping both my son, and Mom out of the nursing home, and allowing me to earn a modest income just to put toward our bills..Third, the Standardizing Electronic Prior Authorization for Safe Prescribing Act of 2018 gained three new cosponsors in Representative Todd Rokita, Representative Jackie Walorski, and Representative Roger Marshall, bringing the new cosponsor total to six. If signed into law, H.R. 4841 would allow for and standardize electronic prior authorization for Medicare Part D beneficiaries.
