Quiz Health Issues And The Election QuizStay Informed and Sign up for the TSCL Newsletter.The Senior Citizens League is pleased that Congress has successfully negotiated a repeal of the SGR, since the flawed formula has not worked as intended for twelve years. It has called for physician pay cuts some as steep as 30 percent more than seventeen times, threatening access to quality medical care for beneficiaries. We are hopeful that the new payment system will bring increased stability to the Medicare program..Practice using the tool: Have your Medicare number, information about your current coverage, and a complete list of prescription drugs, including dosages and the number you need per month at hand. The Plan Finder will ask you to provide information including your zip code, current Medicare coverage, the drugs you take, the pharmacies you plan to use, and whether you want to see just Part D stand alone plans or Medicare Advantage plans or both. For meaningful results accurately enter all your prescriptions. When complete get your Drug List ID number, print it out and save it. You don't want to enter it again every time you revisit the Plan Finder and invariably you will. … Continued
Anti Vaxxers Among Top Threats To Global Health Who SaysWhat you can do: Send a letter, email or fax to your Senators and Representative..Lawmakers continued working on an omnibus spending bill this week to fund the federal government past December 11th. In addition, The Senior Citizens League saw support grow for one key bill that would give Social Security beneficiaries a cost-of-living adjustment next year..Suppose, for example, that an illegal immigrant works for 13 years under an invalid Social Security number, but then gains legal status and works another 22 years under a valid Social Security number. The earnings under the invalid SSN are reinstated under the new work-authorized Social Security number because the individual kept W2s. Thirteen years of earnings would be more than enough to become qualified for Social Security. In this case, 13 years of illegal work would form one-third of the earnings that are used to determine the individual's basic Social Security benefit. This scenario isn't as unlikely as you might think. A major national pro-immigration reform advocacy organization counsels "undocumented" workers to save their pay stubs and W2s "in case their legal status changes." … Continued