News

Under growing pressure to reduce the federal deficit, the prospect of major Social Security and Medicare cuts is the greatest it's been in almost three decades. The recent debt limit deal calls for a bipartisan committee that has until Thanksgiving to come up with a plan to cut the deficit by .2 trillion. TSCL believes that the committee would very likely include a change to a more slowly growing consumer price index that would cut annual-cost-of-living adjustments. There are also proposals that would require seniors to pay a bigger portion of their Medicare costs.."Even one year of high health costs, like being hospitalized for surgery, could force most seniors to spend through their savings faster, or go into debt," says TSCL Chairman, Ed Cates. "Most retirees are dealing with fragile fiscal safety nets," he says. "What makes this finding so significant is that most Medicare health plans have annual out-of-pocket maximums that exceed ,000," Cates adds..New eligibility rules make it considerably easier for millions of applicants, including seniors under the age of 65, who are too young for Medicare, to qualify for the program. But older seniors continue to have much more restrictive and stringent asset and savings tests to satisfy before they qualify for Medicaid, because the new rules don't apply to seniors age 65 and older. This sets up inequities in benefits between seniors like Notch Babies who are in their late 80s and 90s and who are more likely to be receiving long-term care, and other people younger than 65 who will benefit from the less stringent Medicaid qualification rules.."Public health officials were quick to tout J&J's data as a strong result, particularly given that regulators initially said a vaccine would only have to be 50% effective to be authorized. A vaccine that is 66% effective is an incredibly powerful tool in fighting respiratory viruses, they stressed. 'We would be celebrating a seasonal influenza vaccine with 60% efficacy,' Jay Butler, the deputy director for infectious diseases at the CDC, told reporters..Essma Extra!."For this group of Medicare beneficiaries, this will also be the largest Medicare Part B increase in five years after premiums remained relatively flat since 2013," says Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare Policy Analyst for The Senior Citizens League. The jump in premiums is due to a special provision of law known as "hold harmless," which protected millions of Social Security recipients from reductions to their Social Security benefits in 2016 and 2017, when then the annual - cost - of - living adjustments were zero and just 0.3 percent, respectively..We realize there is a severe lack of good news these days and we sometimes fear reporting on the issues of the day can have the effect of discouraging our supporters like you..While the majority of workers pay Social Security on 100% of their earnings, people who earn the most, more than 8,500 a year, pay NOTHING on earnings over that amount..To see if your Members of Congress will be holding town hall meetings in the final days of the spring recess, click HERE or call their local offices. You can find contact information HERE.