News

  • Brand Name Drugs Increasing 10x Rate Inflation

    The Senior Citizens League enthusiastically supports H.R. 2276, H.R. 4957, S. 2387, and S. 2671, and we were pleased to see support grow for them this week. For more information about these and other TSCL-backed bills, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website. .Many seniors can save substantially on drug costs by using mail order, and it's worth looking into. Be sure to use your drug plan's "preferred provider" mail order service. If you go outside of your drug plan's mail order network, your plan may not cover your drugs. .The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would eliminate many important tax deductions that older Americans rely on to reduce their taxable retirement income and preserve their savings. Those include deductions for medical expenses, which can be considerable for retirees. The bill also eliminates the deduction for state and local income taxes, casualty loss expenses, such as fire, wind damage and theft, and imposes new limits for the mortgage interest deduction. "The loss of these exemptions would leave older Americans paying taxes on more retirement income and higher tax bills," Johnson says. … Continued

  • H R 3118 Strengthening Social Security Act

    In its June 2018 Long Term Budget Outlook, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that earnings will grow faster for higher-income people than for others over the next 30 years. The CBO expects that trend to lead to a decrease in the amount of payroll tax receipts that otherwise would flow into Social Security, as a greater share of earnings will be above the maximum amount subject to Social Security payroll taxes. .Consequently, Medicare spent billion in 2013 but paid out billion by 2017 for these treatments. In addition, neurology medicines, mostly those used to combat multiple sclerosis, accounted for more than 50% of total Medicare payments, despite representing just 4% of all claims filed. .What Did My Member of Congress Mean By That? … Continued

In addition, the budget proposal includes more than 0 billion in cuts to Medicare providers, including hospitals, post-acute care providers, skilled nursing facilities, and pharmaceutical companies. According to the White House, these cuts would add five years to the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund, but TSCL has concerns about how they would affect seniors' access to quality medical care. .Also last week, House Democrats unveiled a range of health care measures to be included in their coming .5 trillion package, including provisions to lower prescription drug prices and expand Medicaid in the 12 GOP-led states that have refused to do so. The measure unveiled by the House Energy and Commerce Committee includes legislation to allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower drug prices, known as H.R. 3. .We have been reporting recently that unless Congress passes new legislation soon there will be significant cuts in Medicare payments to health care providers, such as doctors and hospitals. If that happens it is quite possible those patients covered by Medicare would likely face negative consequences with regard to their health care. .Throughout his testimony, Elmendorf stressed the fact that programs like Social Security and Medicare will continue to grow despite the slow pace of the economic recovery. Over the next ten years, he noted that the number of Americans over the age of sixty-five will increase by one-third. .On Tuesday, with a vote of 31-8, the House Ways and Means Committee voted to advance the Protecting Seniors' Access to Medicare Act (H.R. 1190) – a bill that TSCL supports enthusiastically. H.R. 1190, if signed into law, would repeal the controversial Medicare cost-cutting board that was created by the ACA back in 2010. .As debate intensifies over the cost of medicines, a new analysis found that prescription drug prices were on average 2.5 times more expensive in the U.S. than in 32 other countries. And that gap widened to 3.4 times costlier when looking specifically at brand-name medications. .The Board joined TSCL's legislative team, which includes former Congressman David Funderburk and Mrs. Betty Funderburk, on Tuesday for a day of meetings with key lawmakers and their aides. The following bills, among others, were discussed: the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers CPI-E Act (H.R. 1030), the Notch Fairness Act (H.R. 155), the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 1795), and the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 574). .According to the president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, "The bill throws a lifeline to caregivers by continuing the pause in the 2% Medicare sequester, and making adjustments to buffer the impact of an ill-conceived change in physician payments during a pandemic." .What We Know and What We are Still Learning