As with the start of any new Congress, TSCL is encouraging Senators and Representatives to reintroduce and cosponsor key legislation, like the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act, the Notch Fairness Act, the No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act, and the Social Security Fairness Act. TSCL's legislative agenda for the next two years includes the following issues, among others:.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..Out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-pays and co-insurance..In a recent Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill questioned medical and pharmaceutical industry leaders about the financial relationship between physicians and drug companies. Pharmaceutical companies currently spend billions of dollars annually 90 percent of their marketing program on gifts, lunches, drug samples, and sponsorships of education programs for doctors without any form of public disclosure, leading many to question whether economic incentives provided by the industry cloud physicians' judgment and put profits ahead of patients..Only last year the Comptroller General of the United States, David Walker, warned Congress about this very thing saying, "Doing nothing, means that we are going to head to a precipitous decline in benefits. Remember the Notch Baby problem? This would be a Notch Baby problem magnified multiple times and it should not be allowed to happen.".Thus, under this hypothetical legislation, benefit obligations could not be met after the depletion of the asset reserves and elimination of payroll taxes. If this hypothetical legislation were enacted, with no alternative source of revenue to replace the elimination of payroll taxes on earned income paid on January 1, 2021 and thereafter, we estimate that DI Trust Fund asset reserves would become permanently depleted in about the middle of calendar year 2021, with no ability to pay DI benefits thereafter. We estimate that OASI Trust Fund reserves would become permanently depleted by the middle of calendar year 2023, with no ability to pay OASI benefits thereafter..Recently a journalist, familiar with my estimates of cost-of-living adjustments, contacted me for my thoughts on the topic. Did I think we were staring down rising inflation? I told him that I needed to see more data..When the average person measures cost changes, one compares the change in the cost of a specific item like a gallon of home heating oil over a specific time frame. For example, the national average cost of home heating oil was .15 per gallon in the first week of January 2000. In the first week in January, 2013 it had increased to .00 per gallon - an increase of .8That's a total increase of 257% over 13 years..According to a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, in 2015, the weighted average net price for top-selling brand name specialty drugs in Medicare Part D was ,600 for a 30-day supply, almost twice as much as the weighted average net price of ,920 for the same drugs in Medicaid. The big difference is how drug prices are determined.

Medicaid Issue Brief Medicaid Restructuring Under The American Health Care Act And Nonelderly Adults With Disabilities

Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced S. 62 on January 9, 201It has since been referred to the Committee on Finance..In 1977 Social Security was going bankrupt because of a flawed benefit formula that raised benefits too quickly. That year Congress passed legislation which changed the way benefits were calculated starting with retirees who were born in 1917 and became eligible for benefits in 197The changes were major and the transition between the old and new method of calculating benefits did not work as anticipated..Auxiliary beneficiaries who lack SSNs heighten the risk of improper payments and fraud. The OIG said that the Social Security Administration sometimes has trouble making timely terminations of benefit payments when the beneficiary without his or her own Social Security number dies. Making accurate payments, however, is complicated by the fact that 83% of auxiliary beneficiaries without an SSN identified in the OIG's audit reside outside the United States. In addition, more than 5,000 of the auxiliary beneficiaries are age 90 or older. In fact, the OIG audit uncovered three cases in which the Social Security Administration continued to improperly pay benefits long after the beneficiary had died. … Continued

Issue Brief Rising Cases In Long Term Care Facilities Are Cause For Concern

In your case, you will receive your full benefit at age 6But if you delay until age 70, you'll boost your full benefit by 8% each full year you delay after your full retirement age until age 70. There are other considerations as well. While you may work and receive benefits at the same time, if you are under full retirement age you are restricted in how much you may earn before your benefits will be reduced. Earn more than the exempt amount, and your benefit will be withheld for every in earnings above the limit. In addition, Social Security benefits may add to your taxable income. A portion of your benefits are taxable when your modified adjusted gross income is over ,000 or ,000.."The drug is essential," Heyman testified. "People can die without it… The drug company deserves the right to make a profit. But it is unconscionable that one company, Valeant, can hold Wilson Disease patients hostage," she said in her testimony..One thing we know for certain about the greatest generation, it is that they don't scare easily. Not economic depression, Nazi Germany, Japan, or world war could frighten my father's generation. It is with that same resolve and faith in the rightness of your cause that seniors should not give in to the fear-mongering coming out of Washington D.C. … Continued

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