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Roughly half of all older taxpaying households paid income taxes on a portion of their Social Security benefits this year, even though many of them had incomes as low as ,000 or ,000 for married couples filing jointly. Those modest incomes are just two times higher than the federal poverty level. Do you believe this tax on Social Security benefits is fair and, if not, what are you doing to fix it?.Accelerate or postpone discretionary medical expenses when feasible. The new health law reduced the amount of unreimbursed medical expenses that you can claim when itemizing the deductions. Taxpayers under the age of 65 can claim deductions for expenses that exceed 10 percent of their adjusted gross income. If you are age 65 and older you may still deduct total medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross temporarily but that ends in 201If your expenses are right on the borderline, you may want to take care of any pending medical services and appointments now, so you can boost your deduction for 201If your expenses were too low to claim the medical expense deduction for 2014, consider postponing discretionary services a few weeks into the New Year..During this presidential election year it's important to let elected lawmakers, the President, and their challengers all know how seniors are affected by the economy and how seniors think those issues should be addressed. To participate in TSCL's 2012 Annual Senior Survey online, visit TSCL at or call to receive a copy of the survey by mail..Medicare - age adults 65 and up, and those who are residents of nursing homes are at especially high risk of complications and death from the COVID-19 coronavirus. About 90 percent of the participants of the new survey, which was conducted online during June and July, are Medicare beneficiaries. Survey response indicates support for strengthening program funding versus no change, or prioritizing healthcare delivery through private insurance plans over traditional Medicare. Only 23 percent of survey participants think that priority should be placed on private insurance plans in order to reduce reliance on federal spending and the need to raise taxes, and just 21 percent think the current level of spending is "about right because we could not have anticipated the scope of the coronavirus pandemic.".Because this is an election year, elected lawmakers are likely to be listening extremely carefully to their constituents. Your help now, and that of family and friends, could make the difference in pushing through the ,000 lump-sum legislation..The Post added, "Outside the administration, Trump's intended drug debit cards are drawing criticism from the pharmaceutical industry, budget and health policy experts of both political parties, and even a conservative publication.".Here is a portion of that report:.We must work together to increase the support for this legislation that currently has over 200 cosponsors for the first time in years. Help me by calling your own member of Congress and asking them to cosponsor H.R. 141..As you have experienced, one of the biggest appeals of Medicare Advantage plans are low, or sometimes no, premiums. However, you would still have deductibles to satisfy and co-payments for most, if not every service. In addition, plans are allowed to charge you an out-of-pocket maximum up to ,700 in 2019, an amount that varies and tends to grow each year. Under Medigap, your premiums are higher and, depending on the policy, can increase annually. On the other hand, covered out-of-pocket costs are minimal to nothing. Medicare Advantage is more affordable when you are healthy, but can cost significantly more per year if you require a lot of healthcare services.