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  • Issues Social Security Reform Track Bills Feed

    Only a little more than half of the nation's nursing homes had received inspections, according to data released earlier this month, which prompted Medicare and Medicaid chief Seema Verma to direct that states complete the checks by July 31 or risk losing federal recovery funds. .In the months ahead, The Senior Citizens League will continue to work for enactment of legislation that would strengthen Medicare and lower costs for current and future beneficiaries. For progress updates, follow The Senior Citizens League on Twitter. .The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the number of beneficiaries that will be required to pay the increased Medicare premiums will almost triple over the next decade rising from five percent of beneficiaries in 2011 to 14 percent in 2019 due to the expansions of "means testing" in the PPACA. By 2019 one out of every five new enrollees will have to pay higher premiums. The Senior Citizens League strongly opposes the "means test" and supports efforts to repeal it. To learn more, please visit . … Continued

  • Test Program To Give Covid Vaccine Through Local Pharmacies

    TSCL agrees that doing away with the payroll tax cap would be a fair and responsible solution to the Social Security program's solvency issues. As the negotiations evolve over the coming months, we will continue to monitor them closely, and we will provide updates here in the Legislative News section of our website. .In June, the Medicare trustees estimated that Part B premiums will rise only .50 in 2019, from 4 to 5.50. However, according to a recent survey conducted by The Senior Citizens League, roughly 25 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries are currently paying less than 4 per month due to a special "hold harmless" provision of law. Their Part B premium hikes will be much larger than .50, offsetting a larger portion of the 2019 COLA. .Overpayments are recovered by several means. If the beneficiary is still alive, the overpayment may be sent back to the Social Security Administration, or the Administration will withhold benefits until the amount is paid in full. Other means include seizing tax refunds, wage garnishments, settlements and civil suits. When beneficiaries can't afford to repay the overpayment, a lesser withholding amount can be requested, or beneficiaries can contact Social Security to set up a monthly installment plan to repay the amount. Those who don't agree that they have been overpaid can appeal. Learn more about overpayments at SocialSecurity.gov. … Continued

TSCL Endorses New COLA Legislation .As the number and scope of extreme weather events and disasters grow, some homeowners are learning that their insurance coverage doesn't provide all the protection they were expecting it to. According to Consumer Reports, the greater the damage costs, the higher the likelihood that there will be a disagreement over the claim, especially when you have a very large claim of ,000 or more. .The new benefit formula under the 1977 law changes used "wage indexing" to calculate the initial retirement benefit. The economic assumptions used by Congress and the Social Security Administration assumed that wages would grow more quickly than price inflation. Generally, this is the way the economy tends to perform under normal circumstances. In reality, however, the reverse happened. .This will give them an additional week to try and get something done. If they can't by then, they'll either pass another short-term CR giving them additional time to work until probably Christmas, or they'll give up and go home for Christmas and push everything off to the new Congress and new President in January. .More than 42.4% of people 65 and older had incomes below 200% of poverty under the Supplemental Poverty Measure, compared to 30.4% under the official measure. .Johnson cautions, "The current inflationary trend may only be temporary, because prices today are compared with a big sudden drop in prices a year ago when the impact of COVID-19 first began to hit our economy." "The jump we see now is centered primarily on energy prices, but a number of other spending categories have stayed relatively flat," she says. .Congress and President Obama are battling over the federal budget, but supporters in Congress aren& 8217;t about to forget Notch Babies. The Notch Fairness Act bills (H.R. 155) and (S.90) were introduced by Representative Mike McIntrye (NC-7) and Senator David Vitter (LA). They were among the first bills to be re-introduced in. TSCL Continues Working For Notch Reform TSCL has not given up our goal of Notch reform. In recent months we have been working with long-term Notch reform allies in Congress to ensure that Notch Babies& 8217;, needs are protected from deficit reduction plans that would affect people who are currently retired. .This question is signficant in light of proposals to "reform" Social Security. Several proposals, including "progressive indexing" of the benefit formula, involve changes similar to those that were enacted in 1977 that led to the Notch disparity. When proposals to change the benefit formula are debated, Members of Congress, the media, and the public tend to focus on the anticipated percentage of reduction. The danger of doing this, however, is that the assumptions used at the time often bear little resemblence to what accually occurs. .TSCL is mounting a campaign that strongly urges seniors nationwide to speak out against benefit cuts. "We hope you'll sign and return the petitions we are mailing to supporters against the 'Chained COLA'," says TSCL's Executive Director, Shannon Benton. "Chaining the COLA is a 2 billion cut that will reduce your benefits by as much as 9% over the course of a retirement," Benton notes.