News

The purpose of this update each week is to give our supporters like you information about issues that are important to seniors, but that do not make the headlines. They are usually issues we are working on to ensure our elected officials keep faith with the commitments that were made to each of us during our lifetimes of work, especially concerning Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid..Over the past four years, TSCL's surveys have found that about 9 out of 10 people receiving Social Security benefits report that their household spending rose by at least per month during the prior year. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. "Retirees need to plan for large monthly jumps in spending annually over the course of their retirement," Johnson says. In every year since 2014, the largest percentage of those people participating in TSCL annual Senior Surveys reported that their household spending jumped by more than 9 per month. Since 2014 annual COLAs grew a total of just 3.5 percent, averaging less than 0.9 percent per year. One factor in why retirees have such a gap between their COLA and spending is the consumer price index that the government uses to measure inflation and to determine the annual boost. "One would think that the CPI used to calculate COLAs for retirees would be based on seniors' spending patterns, but it is not," says Johnson. Instead, the COLA is determined by the growth in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. Younger working adults spend a far smaller portion of their income on medical costs, which is the fastest growing category of the CPI in most years. On the other hand, younger working adults spend more on transportation and gasoline, categories that have gone down dramatically in recent years. "This tends to understate the inflation experienced by the majority of people receiving Social Security," notes Johnson..So, while we like the news that they still want to act this year, TSCL is taking a wait-and-see position..Separately, the House Ways and Means Committee Means Committee approved the largest expansion of Medicare since the addition of drug benefits two decades ago..Since 2000, COLAs have increased Social Security benefits a total of 53 percent, yet typical senior expenses grew almost twice as fast - 99.3 percent. Table illustrates ten of the fastest growing costs since 2000. Where no average prices are available, numeric values from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U are used. Table shows the fastest growing costs from January 2019 to January 2020..This week, the partial federal government shutdown continued for the fifth week, and The Senior Citizens League announced its support for one new bill that would expand Medicare coverage to include essential health services..Even the Committee For a Responsible Federal Budget, which proposes the change, suggests that lower-income people could be especially vulnerable under the proposal. The organization is recommending that Congress dedicate about billion in savings from lower spending on COLAs to "enhance various benefits for low-income individuals" saying "while chained CPI is the most accurate measure of inflation, it could result in some undesirable distributional consequences.".Food is one of the top three categories of expenses for most people who rely on Social Security. While the price of gasoline has gone down, food costs, especially meats, have continued to climb. Here are five ways to lower the food bill:.TSCL opposes these new provisions because we feel strongly that seniors should not be required to cover the cost of the poor policy-making decisions that were made by Congress nearly twenty years ago, when lawmakers first created the SGR. According to the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicare beneficiaries will automatically contribute billion in Part B premiums over the next decade to repeal and replace the SGR. TSCL believes any additional cost-sharing including the two new provisions will be unduly harsh.