Under current law, the Medicare program excludes coverage of most routine and emergency dental care, leaving around 70 percent of seniors without comprehensive dental insurance coverage. Will you support the Medicare Dental Benefit Act to ensure that seniors have access to essential health care?.This week, a bipartisan group of Senators sent a letter to the White House urging executive action on prescription drug prices. In addition, two key bills gained support in the House..What is TSCL?.Surprise! The new healthcare law requires just that. A provision, added by Senator Charles Grassley, requires Members of Congress and their staff to get their health insurance through new health insurance exchanges starting in 201The provision is stirring up lawmaker worry on Capitol Hill over whether the federal government will continue to pay part of their premiums, or leave them to cover 100% of the cost. Through the end of 2013, Members of Congress get their insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Under FEHBP the government's share of premiums is about 75% of premium costs..Alexandria, VA majority of Social Security recipients would have to raid retirement savings or use a line of credit to meet even relatively modest financial emergencies, according to a new poll by The Senior Citizens League. When retirees were asked how they would raise ,000, 49 percent of respondents said they would take money from savings and another 30 percent said they would use a line of credit or borrow..Editor's note: We regret the passing of Representative Elijah E. Cummings, who died October 17, 201He will be remembered for many things, including his stand on cutting high healthcare costs for American families..COLA cuts: The White House proposes switching to the more slowly - growing measure of inflation, the chained consumer price index, to calculate annual COLAs. The proposal has bipartisan support in Congress. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it would cut spending on Social Security about 7 billion over the next ten years and bring in roughly 4 billion in higher taxes. To learn how the proposal would impact your benefits, try TSCL's Chained COLA calculator..It is possible there could also be another emergency spending bill or, as we reported above, even a full-blown stimulus to try and keep the economy going..Key witnesses such as Mr. Richard Nance, Director of the Utah County Department of Drug and Alcohol Prevention and Treatment, advocated in favor of expanding telemedicine to treat those afflicted with addiction. Other witnesses such as Dr. Andrew Kolodny of Brandeis University warned that doctors need further education on safe opioid prescribing, and that it should not be influenced in any way by parties that benefit from the sale of opioids.
