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  • Category Issues Medicare Part D Articles Page 4

    This week, one Member of Congress introduced legislation that could make the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) a more accurate measure of inflation. In addition, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) saw support grow for two key bills. .The Medicare portion of spending, officials say, grew 6.2 percent in 2011, after growing just 4.3 percent in 20A major factor holding down costs was the recession. As tens of thousands of working seniors lost jobs, and their healthcare coverage, other seniors were hit by the crash of retirement savings and real estate values. This was followed by two years without any cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in 2010 or 2011. .Incredibly, to count as poor under the official poverty measure, your income must fall below a threshold, which is based on subsistence level food costs in 195When adopted in 1963, the poverty threshold was defined as three times the "subsistence food budget" for a family of a given size. Unlike other government measures, like the consumer price index, which undergoes continual changes to methodology, the official poverty measure has never changed, other than annual adjustments for inflation. … Continued

  • Benefit Bulletin 2

    Action on Capitol Hill was slow this week as Members of the House returned to their districts for a week-long recess, and most Members of the Senate kept their focus on a transportation bill and a series of judicial nominations. However, on Thursday, four Senators unveiled a drastic plan to phase out Medicare. .Earlier this year, a Congressional report referred to the AARP as a "massive for-profit enterprise" whose financial structure "conflicts with its legal requirements to ‘primarily operate to promote the common good and social welfare of a community of people.'" .For example, one Maine resident worked in the private sector, paying into Social Security for fifteen years before she returned to the teaching profession. Her earned Social Security benefits would have totaled 0 a month. However, due to the WEP, she receives only 0 each month from the program. She is also unable to collect Social Security spousal benefits due to the GPO, even though her spouse paid into the system throughout his entire career. In retirement, she must rely almost entirely upon her teaching pension, which is modest since she spent only a decade in the profession. She told the National Education Association, "If I had known the severe financial penalty I was to pay for returning to teaching, I don't think I would have done it." … Continued

This week, the CBO released its report on the long term budget outlook, which found that the federal debt is projected to increase from today's rate of 74 percent of GDP to 106 percent of GDP in twenty-five years if no major changes are made. The nonpartisan agency said the trend cannot be sustained indefinitely, and already, the total amount of debt held by the public is "higher than at any point in U.S. history except a brief period around World War II." .Thus beneficiaries will continue to be hit with steep costs when they fall into the coverage gap in the foreseeable future. To keep prices as low as possible in the doughnut hole, beneficiaries can look into using mail-order pharmacies, which require 90-day prescriptions and are often cheaper per dose than a 30-day supply. People with limited incomes may also qualify for Extra Help or other pharmaceutical assistance programs. TSCL also recommends that Part D beneficiaries talk to their doctors at each visit to discuss potential alternatives to their high-cost prescriptions. .Start Now! .This study looks at 39 expenditures that are typical for people age 65 and up, comparing the growth in the prices of these goods and services to the growth in the annual COLAs. It includes cost increases in Medicare premiums and out of pocket costs that aren't tracked under the index currently used to calculate the COLA. .When my husband and I were planning the timing on our Social Security benefits, our financial advisor suggested that we could maximize our payout if I started with a spousal benefit based on my husband's account, while letting my own retirement benefit grow. I continued to work and started the spousal benefit at age 66, my full retirement age. Now I am 70, but have not received any notice from Social Security about my own retirement benefit. Does this mean I won't get anything higher than I already receive? .Although some people argue that the Congressional investigation against AARP was politically motivated, there is no escaping the fact that AARP's revenues from royalties – mostly from insurance sales – are more than two and half times higher than its membership dues (as of 2009). .But he cautions that the amount of benefit from flu vaccination could be different in a different group of people. "There is a protective effect," he says. "How much is something that needs to be quantified with a more intensive study." .Medicare Doesn't Recover The Majority Of Overpayment Payment Amounts, .Of course, members of the subcommittee also spoke, including the opening remarks of the subcommittee chairman John Larson (D- Conn.). Here are a few of his comments: