In addition, one new cosponsor Sen. Christopher Murphy signed on to the Social Security Fairness Act this week, bringing the total up to fourteen in the Senate. If signed into law, S. 896 would repeal two provisions of the Social Security Act that unfairly reduce the earned benefits of millions of state and local government employees each year. TSCL believes that the two provisions the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset must be repealed before the end of this year so that dedicated public servants receive the retirement security they have earned..Medicare Part B premiums are expected to stay at 4 per month in 2018, leaving people like Barbara facing a big premium increase. The 4 premium is per month more than she paid this year, and more than what Barbara expects to get from her COLA in 201That means her Part B premium will be adjusted again to prevent reduction in her benefits. As much as that protection is appreciated, Barbara is frustrated about high Medicare premium costs after years of low or no COLA growth. "It's been 36 months since I've had any raise in my net operating Social Security, but my actual household costs continue to go up," Barbara says. "This isn't fair to retirees," she adds..Senator Mitt Romney recently led a bipartisan Senate group in introducing legislation aimed at fixing Social Security and Medicare's funding shortfalls. If nothing changes, the programs' trust funds are expected to become insolvent in 15 years. If that should occur, benefits would be reduced by about 22 percent in order to match the amount of payroll taxes coming in..Social Security benefits are one of the few types of retirement income to be automatically adjusted annually for inflation. In 2020, more than 61 million Social Security recipients received a 1.6 percent annual COLA, which raised the average ,460 benefit by .40 per month..According to the Congressional Research Service, older noncitizens who were assigned a Social Security number before January 1, 2004, are not required to have ever received authorization to work in the United States at any point to qualify for Social Security benefits. In other words, those individuals may have worked illegally their entire career and may still file a claim for Social Security, and all their illegal earnings will be counted.."That simply isn't the case," says TSCL Chairman, Larry Hyland. TSCL conducts an annual survey of typical senior costs. "That data indicates that Social Security benefits have lost more than one-third of their buying power since 2000," Hyland says. "Changes that cut COLAs even further would make it that much harder for seniors and disabled beneficiaries to afford rising Medicare, energy, and other costs," he notes..However, right now there is no guarantee Republicans would do that, and instead, it is probable they would blame the Medicare cuts on the Democrats..The hold harmless provision kicks in when the dollar amount of an individual's Medicare Part B premium rises more than the dollar amount of an individual's COLA adjustment to prevent a reduction in Social Security benefits. The provision applies to individuals with incomes below ,000, and whose Medicare Part B premium is automatically deducted from their Social Security benefits. Johnson estimates that about 35.5 million Social Security recipients were held harmless in 2016 and 201"People who have been held harmless in both those years are paying premiums that are roughly 8 per month in 2017 on average, a difference of about from the current 4 premium. However, for many of those people, especially those with below - average Social Security benefits, the 2018 COLA won't be high enough to cover the full 4 Part B premium..Ranking Member Senator Murray and several witnesses on Wednesday including Tennessee Health Commissioner Julie McPeak and Pennsylvania Secretary of Health and Human Services Theresa Miller agreed that CSR payments are critical to improving the marketplace and that vulnerable populations must continue to receive the same level of coverage through state waiver programs.
