Are Sugar Substitutes Bad For YouThis discrepancy between COLAs and real costs is squeezing senior households. Retirees are forced to draw down savings faster than planned, and work far longer than anyone ever imagined. In addition, the percentage of households with credit card debt headed by someone age 75 or older has doubled from 11 percent in 1998 to 22 percent in 2010 according to recent data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. The sad fact is that people 65 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population filing for bankruptcy. Seniors are getting deep into debt because of high medical bills, long-term care costs, and dwindling retirement savings..When there is no or a very low COLA, a special provision of law known as "hold harmless" protects beneficiaries when the dollar amount of their COLA is lower than the dollar amount of their Part B increase. The Part B premium is adjusted to prevent a reduction in Social Security benefits from one year to the next. "But when this provision occurs on a program-wide basis - as it did in 2016 and 2017, the entire increase in Medicare Part B for the year is shifted to the people who are not protected by hold harmless, Johnson notes. Instead of the Part B increase being spread over all Medicare beneficiaries, the total cost increase is borne by only 30 percent of Medicare beneficiaries who are not protected by the hold harmless provisions. They include:.Consumer Reports makes a good point. When you stick with the higher costing brand, the entire cost of the drug under that plan will apply towards your initial coverage limit, pushing you toward the doughnut hole coverage gap. That raises the chance you will use up your limit before the year's end and you'll pay half the cost of the brand name drug in the doughnut hole, and 79% on any generics. You may want to ask your doctor to prescribe the generic version of the drug whenever available. … Continued
Aboutus Executive Committee OfficersA number of innovative alternatives to the SGR exist those outlined above are three among more than a dozen. Because the options are so varied, TSCL believes that testing and evaluating different models will be a critical step in the process. A bill recently introduced by Rep. Allyson Schwartz the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act would do just that, and we look forward to partnering with her in the coming months to resolve the physician payment fiasco once and for all..The people who are not covered by hold harmless include higher income beneficiaries, beneficiaries who have not started Social Security yet and who pay for Medicare by check, and about 19% of beneficiaries whose incomes are so low that their state Medicaid program pays their Medicare Part B premiums on their behalf..Split your pills if you can: You can further cut your costs in half by splitting your pills in half. Ask your doctor if pill splitting would work with your prescriptions. Your doctor would need to write a prescription with a dosage twice as high as you normally take. You can readily find inexpensive pill splitters at your pharmacy. If you do split your pills, make sure your family and emergency caregivers also know! Carefully label all prescriptions that require splitting. … Continued