TSCL enthusiastically supports the Social Security Guarantee Act since it would go a long way in ensuring the retirement security older Americans have earned and deserve. At a time when many in Congress are considering proposals that would cut Social Security benefits, we believe its passage is more important than ever..I am 92 years old and live on Social Security. I live with my son and his wife so am not hurting too badly. But the rise in health insurance is taking a good-sized chunk of my only source of income. My doctor refused to take the insurance I had, so I was forced into taking what he would accept. I tried to find a different doctor but was refused because NO one is taking patients my age on Medicare. I am a Notch Victim as was my husband. I would like to see the Notch Victims get the proper amount of Social Security due them..When you are a hospital inpatient, Medicare Part A covers inpatient services. Generally that means you will pay a one-time deductible for all of your hospital services for the first 60 days, although costs may be somewhat different if you're enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. In addition, Medicare will only cover the care you receive in a skilled nursing facility if you had a "qualifying hospital stay." To qualify, you must be a hospital inpatient for at least 3 days in a row, and Medicare doesn't count the day of your discharge..The program will ship roughly one million doses per week to about 6,500 pharmacies across the U.S. as a trial run, beginning Feb. 1They also will boost shipments to states by 5% to 10.5 million doses per week, up from the 10 million doses that were announced a week earlier..Some have hailed this provision as the closing of a "loophole," while others have said the provision will cause companies to cut jobs, and cut prescription drug coverage for retirees. Because companies would no longer be able to deduct the subsidy, it would increase the taxes they expect to pay under current law. The Senior Citizens League is monitoring this provision's potential effects on retirees. TSCL is concerned that some employers may cancel the often-generous prescription drug coverage that they provide to their retirees as a result of the expected increased costs of providing that benefit. If any retirees lose their current prescription drug coverage, they could then go through Medicare Part D to get their prescription drug coverage..TSCL agrees, and we fear that if triggered, the IPAB's recommendations could lead to higher costs for seniors or decreased access to quality medical care. We are enthusiastic supporters of Rep. Roe's bill, and we were pleased to see it win passage in the House this week..Nearly, 1.5 million people are affected by the WEP, which reduces the earned Social Security benefits of an individual who also receives a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security. For example, a teacher who spends his or her summers working a second job or a police officer who leaves the force after years of service but is not quite ready to retire can see their benefits reduced by as much as 40 percent. However, a similar worker with a private sector pension would not see this kind of reduction. We are punishing public sector employees such as our teachers, firefighters, and police officers..On Thursday, the Ways and Means Committee held a long overdue hearing on the Social Security 2100 Act. The bill was introduced by Congressman John Larson in January of this year. A companion bill was introduced in the Senator by Senator Richard Blumenthal. If adopted these bills would strengthen and reform Social Security by providing beneficiaries with a 2 percent benefit increase, would base the cost-of-living on the CPI-E, create a new minimum benefit set 125 percent of the poverty line and cut taxes for beneficiaries. Increase costs to the program would be paid for my applying the payroll tax to income over 400,000 and gradually increase the payroll tax rate to 7.4 percent..Thus, under this hypothetical legislation, benefit obligations could not be met after the depletion of the asset reserves and elimination of payroll taxes. If this hypothetical legislation were enacted, with no alternative source of revenue to replace the elimination of payroll taxes on earned income paid on January 1, 2021 and thereafter, we estimate that DI Trust Fund asset reserves would become permanently depleted in about the middle of calendar year 2021, with no ability to pay DI benefits thereafter. We estimate that OASI Trust Fund reserves would become permanently depleted by the middle of calendar year 2023, with no ability to pay OASI benefits thereafter.
