Patient Education Care Of Children Nutrition What To Do If Your Child Gets Constipation"People who have been receiving benefits for 12 years or longer have experienced an unprecedented series of extremely low cost-of-living adjustments," says Mary Johnson, a Social Security policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League. What's more those inflation adjustments do not account for rapidly rising Medicare Part B premiums that are increasing several times faster than the COLA. The situation is causing those with the lower Social Security benefits to see little growth in their net Social Security income after deduction of the Part B premium..Drug prices in the U.S. are much higher than in other developed countries, because there are no federal laws regulating prices. In fact, the law specifically forbids Medicare from negotiating prices on behalf of its beneficiaries. Allowing the importation of prescription drugs from countries such as Canada, where drugs are less expensive, has the potential to lower drug costs for both U.S. consumers and the federal government..In a statement, Mary Johnson a policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League said this week: "This could be particularly problematic for older, low-income Americans who represent a disproportionate share of Medicaid spending … Capping and adjusting payments to states would take benefits away from millions of low-income families, including disabled and older Americans in nursing homes, all to pay for massive tax breaks for the very wealthiest U.S. households." … Continued
Blog Medicaid A Changing Federal State PartnershipIn their 2016 platform, Democrats committed to adopting a more fair and accurate Social Security cost-of-living adjustment, saying, "The Democratic Party recognizes that the way Social Security COLAs are calculated may not always reflect the spending patterns of seniors, particularly the disproportionate amount they spend on healthcare expenses." To cover the cost of providing a more accurate COLA and to increase the solvency of the trust funds, Democrats voted to support policies that would apply the payroll tax cap to income above 0,000 so that wealthier individuals pay the same Social Security tax rate as everyone else..In addition, one new cosponsor Rep. Corrine Brown signed on to the Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act. The cosponsor total is now up to one hundred and forty-four. If signed into law, H.R. 1179 would amend current Medicare policy to count hospital stays under "observation status" towards the three-day requirement for skilled nursing care. Currently, those under "observation status" don't qualify for coverage of the benefit, and they are often hit with large, unexpected bills after receiving necessary medical care. TSCL believes the current policy is unfair, and we were glad to see support grow for H.R. 1179 this week..For each of the reasons above, TSCL sincerely hopes that Congress will allow the Social Security payroll tax cut to expire at the end of this year. Extending it for a third time would be irresponsible, and we fear that it could jeopardize the program's ability to fully pay Social Security benefits in the future. To learn more about the tax cut and other issues affecting Social Security, visit our website. … Continued