News

A government shut down, while causing some problems, isn't as bad as breaching the debt ceiling. That's known as a "technical default," as some government obligations won't be met on time depending on how long the stalemate lasts. The Treasury Department would have to rely on whatever cash is left on hand and daily revenue inflows..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?.Watch this video to learn more about prescription drug pricing:.Medicare Advantage plan cuts. So far, seniors have not been widely affected by cuts to Medicare Advantage plans, but many of the changes in reimbursements to plans have not yet taken effect. TSCL remains concerned that the reimbursement cuts would cause plans to drop extra benefits like eyeglasses and hearing aids that they now provide. Of greater concern is whether plan payments will be adequate for insurers to maintain their contracts with Medicare to provide services. When Congress cut plan payments too deeply in the past, insurers pulled out of markets all over the United States, leaving millions of seniors scrambling to find another health plan - most often at higher out-of-pocket cost..He noted that a vaccine's rarer side effects are often not recognized until it is put into broad use. To discover an adverse outcome that only occurs in one person in 100,000, for instance, a company would need to test it in 384,250 people from broad backgrounds and with a variety of medical conditions..According to the findings of a new report released by The Senior Citizens League, Social Security benefits have lost 34 percent of their buying power over the past eighteen years due to growing costs and inadequate cost-of-living adjustments. For every 0 a retired household spent in 2000, the same household can only buy around worth of goods and services today..The panel discussed the following options for strengthening Social Security, among others: updating the benefit formula for low-income workers, modifying the annual cost-of-living adjustment to make it more accurate, increasing survivors' benefits, and creating caregiver credits for those who support aging parents. However, the focus of Wednesday's hearing seemed to be on addressing the insolvency of the Social Security Disability Insurance program..What do you feel are Medicare's major problem areas, and how do you feel they should be addressed?.The federal government negotiates prescription drug prices for Medicaid and for veterans, but it is barred from negotiating lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries. As a result, senior citizens enrolled in Part D often pay much higher prices for their prescriptions. What are you doing to correct this unfair policy?