News

  • Ask Advisor February March 2018

    The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation have boosted previous estimates and now say that switching to the chained consumer price index (C-CPI) will cut Social Security and other federal retirement benefits by 8 billion and increase taxes by 2 billion over the next 10 years. The loss to beneficiaries would compound over time and grows deeper each year as illustrated in the following chart. As seniors grow older and more likely to develop costly health conditions, their Social Security benefits would become less adequate to cover rising costs more quickly. .My daughter's father-in-law lives with them and he looks really sick. I urged my daughter to take him to the doctor. My daughter tells me that she learned that he doesn't have Medicare Part B. He's 81 years old! After spending hours on the phone, she learned that he will have to pay an extra 0 per month for his Medicare Part B coverage, in addition to the 8.50 for 202Can this be correct? What can she do? .I read that the Medicare Part D doughnut hole is closing. What does that mean? I recently started on Lantus insulin, which my drug plan covers, but with the other drugs I take, I expect to hit the doughnut hole with my April refill. … Continued

  • H R 818 Preventing Reducing Improper Medicare Medicaid Expenditures Prime Act

    Does Medicare Cover Eyeglasses? .This doesn't mean you should completely rule out starting widow's benefits. Depending on your finances, you may be able to start a reduced widow's benefit now and later switch to your own retirement benefits after your reach full retirement age or later if it would be higher than what you are entitled to now. If your own retirement would not be higher, then starting survivor's benefits now would lock in a permanently lower benefit. .In your book The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security you say that today's retirees need to "rethink retirement." In what ways do our ideas about retirement need changing? … Continued

TSCL Urges Action on Debt Ceiling .To get information about Medicare supplement premiums, first select the plan offering the coverage you are interested in, "A" through "N". You can find a listing of these plans on page 82 of the 2017 Medicare & You handbook but not all states will have all plans. Once you have chosen the plan then you can simply compare premiums between insurers. The coverage for each type of plan is just the same, but premiums between various insurers can vary tremendously. .More than 55% of participants in TSCL's 2019 Senior Survey support federal programs that help with energy assistance. .I turn 66 in August of next year, and plan to start Social Security retirement benefits. How much may I earn in 2021 without reducing my benefits? .The orders were issued on a Friday which left little time for analysts to review them and comment prior to the weekend. However, since then we have learned new information, we want to share with you. .This week, lawmakers remained in their home states and districts for the two-week spring recess. .First, the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act (S. 521, H.R. 141) gained eight new cosponsors in the Senate and the House, bringing the cosponsor totals up to thirty and 165, respectively. The new cosponsors are: Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA), Senator Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Representative Sean Casten (IL-6), Representative Susan Davis (CA-53), Representative Elaine Luria (VA-2), Representative Colin Allred (TX-32), Representative Ed Case (HI-1), and Representative Filemon Vela (TX-34). .In case Congress is not able to come to an agreement concerning legislation to lower prescription drug prices, there are reports that President Trump is considering executive action to cut drug prices ahead of the 2020 election as he enters his re-election seeking to rebut Democratic criticism that his policies have hurt U.S. health care. .As we have previously written, there is a bill that has passed out of the Senate Finance Committee called the Grassley-Wyden bill but Senator McConnell also refuses to bring that bill to the floor for consideration. The Grassley-Wyden bill is co-sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, Ron Wyden (D-OR).