Daily News Tags Budget Summaries"'Health-care preparedness today is much better than it was in February and March,'" Badley said in an interview. "'We have better and more rapid access to diagnosis. We have more knowledge about what drugs to use and what drugs not to use. We have more experimental treatments available. All of those contribute to possible improvements in the mortality rate.'".That doesn't mean that a budget agreement is completely out of the question or the much more unlikely scenario that Congress won't get paid. The No Budget No Pay Act holds Congressional paychecks in escrow, and, by law, will release the funds either when a budget agreement is reached, or on the last day of the 113th Congress, which ends on December 31, 2014..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. … Continued
Patient Education General InformationBringing Newly Hired State and Local Workers Into The Social Security System: Currently 96 percent of U.S. workers are covered by Social Security; most of the remaining four percent are covered by federal, state and local pension plans and do not contribute to Social Security. Bringing newly hired state and local workers into the system by 2021 would make Social Security more inclusive and increase its revenues. This proposal would close about eight percent of the program's 75-year shortfall..Preventing benefit cuts. Older Americans understand the compounding effect that even the smallest benefit cut can have over the course of several years. DI beneficiaries living on fixed incomes simply cannot afford a reduction in benefits..Two Key Bills Gain Support … Continued