Both the SSA and AARP say that "fixing" the Notch would be a costly mistake that would drain dollars from the Social Security Trust Fund reserve. In 1992 one popular piece of legislation to provide improved monthly benefits was estimated to cost 0 billion. To counter these concerns, alternative "capped-cost" legislation has been introduced. "The Notch Fairness Act of 2001" would provide those born from 1917 through 1926 their choice of either improved monthly benefits, or a Lump-Sum of ,000 payable over a four-year period. The cost of Lump-Sum legislation is estimated to be billion, or slightly less than .25 billion per year over a four-year period..If you didn't sign up with Medicare for Part A and/or Part B when you first turned 65, because you were covered by your own or your wife's company's plan, you may need to sign up during the 8-month period that began after your wife's employment ended in order to avoid a late enrollment penalty..President Barak Obama included a proposal in his fiscal year 2014 budget that would have reduced Social Security benefits by using the more slowly-growing chained consumer price index to calculate the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment. An estimate produced for TSCL projects that "chaining the COLA" would cut Social Security benefits by about 9% over a 30-year retirement. Although the proposal has been under discussion for several years, it has not passed, primarily due to fierce resistance from older voters..The effect tends to be tempered by the fact that the federal poverty level itself is adjusted for inflation every year, using the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers. In most years the CPI-U grows slightly faster than the index used to adjust Social Security benefits, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. Thus, it tends to keep pace with the COLA. But in 2020, the CPI-U grew more slowly than the COLA, growing just 1% instead of the CPI-W's 1.3%. Thus, SNAP benefits and many other types of benefits were reduced or even eliminated this year for some beneficiaries..Majority Of Retirees Would Raid Savings Or Borrow For Financial Emergencies Says New Poll By The Senior Citizens League.The "Medicare Notch" could affect a growing number of people if inflation remains unusually low while Medicare premium increases are relatively high. With no COLA in 2011 as the Social Security Trustees predict, people protected by the hold harmless provision in 2009 would continue to pay .40 per month, people who enrolled in 2010 would continue to pay 4 because now they would be protected by hold harmless, but new enrollees in 2011 would pay an estimated 0 per month..Around 20% of Medicare beneficiaries are also enrolled in Medicaid and receive help from the program to cover long-term nursing home stays. The BCRA would cut Medicaid by more than 0 billion and cap federal spending on the program. How will you ensure access to nursing home care if the BCRA is adopted, and can you guarantee that older Americans will not be forced out of skilled nursing facilities due to funding cuts?.Over the years, TSCL surveys indicate that older Americans overwhelmingly oppose totally replacing Medicare with a system of private insurance plans. On the other hand, the design of traditional Medicare alone has a considerably high level of out-of-pocket spending, and no annual out-of-pocket limit. That leaves an important role for private insurers to fill in the gap with Medigap supplements or Medicare Advantage plans..Social Security's combined Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds will be fully funded until 2035 one year later than was projected in last year's report. At that point, if nothing is done by Congress, Social Security would still have the funds to pay out 80 percent of scheduled benefits using tax revenues alone. The Trustees also estimated that Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be fully funded until 2026, at which point the program would still be able to pay out almost 90 percent of scheduled benefits using tax revenues.
