Finally, the Protecting and Preserving Social Security Act gained one new cosponsor in Senator Claire McCaskill, who brings the new cosponsor total to three. If signed into law, S. 1600 would base the Social Security COLA on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly. The bill would also ensure that high income earners pay their fair share of taxes into Social Security..Highly recommended reading: "How To Make Your Money Last, The Indispensible Retirement Guide," Jane Bryant Quinn, January, 2016..The following Members of Congress, among many others, will be holding town hall meetings in the days ahead: Reps. Diana DeGette, Lynn Jenkins, Gary Palmer, Tom Rice, Todd Rokita, Steve Cohen, David Valadao, Steve Womack, Susan Brooks, Randy Hultgren, Lamar Smith, Eric Swalwell, Marc Veasey, and Rep. Ed Perlmutter..While at TREA, Larry became familiar with The Senior Citizens League, which was first established in 1992 as a special project of TREA..That said, roughly 30 percent of beneficiaries are not protected by the provision, and they can be subject to substantial spikes in the Part B premiums. In the past, the costs of the unpaid portion of Medicare Part B premiums of those who were protected by hold harmless were shifted to those who were not protected by the provision. Because fewer people were covering the costs Medicare Part B premiums, increases were significantly higher than usual..TSCL enthusiastically supports the CPI for Seniors Act since we believe it would go a long way in ensuring the retirement security seniors have earned and deserve. In the coming months, we will work tirelessly with Congressman Duncan to help build support for his critical new bill..While restricting a potential Part B spike in any given year is good news for beneficiaries, the problem itself isn't going away any time soon. "Unless Congress acts to boost Social Security benefits and finds a better way to adjust benefits for growing Medicare costs, this problem will continue occur with greater frequently in the future," says Johnson. "This approach of imposing future premium repayments doesn't fix the problem - it's like a payday loan. It just makes the premiums grow faster later, and the problem is triggered again the next time when COLAs are extremely low," Johnson says. The Senior Citizens League is working to get legislation introduced that would provide an emergency COLA of 3 percent in 202To learn more, visit..One of the biggest traps to determining Medicare premiums based on income is how the government defines "high income." Social Security's rules can snag even modest-income people. This can happen when a home is sold or when converting retirement accounts. One-time capital gains can put seniors over the Medicare income thresholds. The higher Medicare premiums reduce monthly Social Security benefits for an entire year. Should your mother's income in 2010 return to more modest levels she won't have to pay the means test premium surcharges and her Social Security benefit should return to more normal levels next year..He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Manassas Museum in Manassas, Virginia, and a former board member of the Retiresafe association.
