News

For progress updates or for more information about these and other bills that would strengthen Social Security and Medicare programs, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website or follow TSCL on Twitter.Alexandria, VA Seniors will get one of the lowest cost-of-living adjustment paid in the past decade next January. But even so, COLAs remain a key target in post-election deficit reduction efforts, warns The Senior Citizens League, one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups. A plan that would slow the growth in annual COLAs is a key provision of major deficit reduction plans quietly under consideration in Congress..But in the meantime, beware of scams and identity theft attempts. Scammers are taking advantage of the confusion created by the transition, and reports of Medicare card scams are rampant. The two most important things to know: Medicare will not call or contact you for "information about your account," and the new card will not cost you anything..Consider dental savings plans. These are buying club - like programs for which you pay an annual fee of to 0 to access a network of dentists who offer discounts of up to 50% for members. You can find a dental plan online at DentalPlans.com..Even with the vaccine there is still a 1 in 20 chance of getting the virus. The vaccine will prevent the symptoms of the virus from occurring. In other words, it will prevent you from becoming sick, or at least horribly sick. But you could still carry the virus and pass it on to others who are not yet vaccinated..Hospitals, which are often the biggest employers in their localities, or even their states, have furloughed workers, and the industry lost an estimated billion a month in foregone surgeries and procedures during the worst part of the pandemic. Hospitals rely on elective surgeries for a major portion of their revenue, because Medicare and private insurers tend to pay more for those procedures than other types of hospital care. Hospitals say they also have lost money in treating COVID-19, because of the amount of intensive care that patients need..TSCL agrees with Congressman Garamendi, and we hope to see his CPI-E Act signed into law before the end of the 115th Congress. For more information on H.R. 1251, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website. To read The Senior Citizens League's Loss of Buying Power study, click HERE..They have already spent heavily on lobbying and are expected to soon intensify their efforts, and TSCL's concern is that the new protections could be watered down during the rulemaking process and leave consumers still vulnerable to unexpectedly large bills..In reality, there's no need to cut or privatize Social Security in order to assure its solvency. Social Security could pay its full promised benefits for decades to come if we simply asked all Americans to pay their fair share of FICA taxes. Here's the deal: Ninety- four percent of American workers pay into Social Security all year long on every dollar they earn. The wealthiest six percent do not. They stop paying after their income hits the 8,500 cap. For people taking home million or more, that arrives just six weeks into the year. Some even finish paying just after New Year's Day. This gaping loophole allows billionaire hedge fund managers and corporate CEOs to pay a far lower percentage of their income into Social Security than teachers, police officers and healthcare workers.