Racial equity and health policy fact sheet public charge policies for immigrants implications for health coverage

TSCL Supports New Bill.Medicare Part B premiums are forecast to soar an astonishing 22.3% for an estimated 16 million Medicare beneficiaries in 2017 - the biggest such jump in nearly three decades. The anticipated spike in monthly premiums, from 1.80 to an estimated 9.00 per month in 2017, is primarily due to the effects of an extremely low inflation that's expected to hit retirees again next year. Medicare Trustees believe that the annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2017 will be insufficient to cover the amount of the Medicare Part B premium increase for the majority of Medicare beneficiaries. That would trigger a special "hold harmless" provision of law..Social Security provides at least half the income for 65 percent of seniors..Possibly. A great deal will depend on how much of your 401 and IRA distributions are taxable. A quick way to check is to take one-half of your total Social Security benefits, add to that all taxable pensions, wages, interest, dividends and other taxable income. Then add any tax-exempt interest income. This is called your "provisional" income..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?.TSCL continues to fight the agreement and supports measures that would block it from taking effect should it be sent to Congress for approval. TSCL continues to educate new lawmakers about the issue and recently filed a third Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to force the U.S. government to release documents related to the agreement, include those concerning the estimated cost to the Social Security Trust Fund..Rep. Tim Ryan has also supported Pascrell's plan to fire the board, citing constituents' calls about late bills, checks and holiday cards..In short, since 2015 Congress apparently forgot about the deficit and went on a spending spree. But suddenly, it has become a crisis again. Or has it become a convenient excuse for doing what a lot of them have wanted to do for a long time: cut Medicare and Social Security benefits?.adequate income, especially if you live to your 80's or 90's.

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What if I make a donation and then become dissatisfied with TSCL?.their coverage, losing all of the money they paid..President Trump announced last week that there will be a new type of Medicare prescription drug plan that will cap insulin costs at per month for some seniors who have diabetes. While TSCL applauds that as far as it goes, it is woefully short of what is needed. … Continued

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The Senior Citizens League believes that the on-going Medicare cuts have weakened our ability to respond to national emergencies like COVID-1It has exacerbated a national healthcare worker shortage - including doctors and nurses, as well as the capacity of the nation's hospitals to deal with the sudden large influx of patients generated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many hospitals, doctors' offices, and nursing homes have required additional federal and state assistance as well as donations from the public, to acquire personal protective equipment such as masks, gowns, and gloves..While a compromise was not reached, some consider the automatic budget cuts as a silver lining. "The good news, if there is no agreement, the nation is going to end up with what Republicans said, there will be a dollar spending reduction for every dollar increase in the debt ceiling" said Hensarling. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney echoed the same optimism: "It's important to remember, however, that because of the Budget Control Act, the 1.2 trillion dollars that the Super Committee was supposed to achieve in deficit reduction will happen regardless.".When the COLA does not accurately or adequately reflect the costs that retired and disabled people actually have, the buying power of Social Security benefits erodes over time. A study by TSCL has found that Social Security benefits have lost 30 percent of their buying power since 2000. … Continued

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