Coronavirus may derail Senate plans for other legislation.On Monday, the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare programs released their annual reports on the current and projected financial status of the two programs. As expected, the Trustees found that both programs currently face significant but manageable financial challenges..Have health insurance coverage. If you are under the age of 65 and didn't have health insurance for some or part of 2014 you may have to pay a tax penalty. For people who don't have Medicare or Medicaid, the penalty for not having coverage is the greater of 1% of your annual income, or The penalty is rising in 2015 to the greater of 2% or 5 per person..The proposal to cut the growth of COLAs formed a major Social Security reform provision of President Obama's 2010 Fiscal Commission. It would reduce the growth rate in COLAs by switching to the more slowly-growing "chained" CPI. "The switch is insidious because it's enormously complicated to figure out, and it looks so small on paper - just 0.03 tenths of a percentage point," Hyland observes. "But the loss compounds over time. Within a decade it would have a significant financial punch that just keeps getting bigger," Hyland explains. The following chart provided by TSCL illustrates the impact of a chained CPI on a married couple's Social Security benefits, which start at a total of ,500 per month today, and how their benefits change over the first ten years. After ten years the chained CPI would reduce benefits by per month, and would cut benefits by ,488 over the ten-year period..If you're preparing for a long sea journey and about to set sail in stormy waters would you knowingly board a ship without adequate lifeboats or an emergency plan? Dumb question, I agree, but this is what the nation's retirees and Baby Boomers are getting ready to do,. The upcoming election will be one of the most important votes we ever make to determine the future of our Security and Medicare benefits. But voters are headed to the polls with frustratingly few details about candidates' plans..Highlights of this week in Congress include: fallout from the Super Committee's indecision; leadership changes at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services; and a new co-sponsor added to a key bill..In a separate report, the CDC responded to concerns about deaths being misattributed to Coved-1The agency took a close look at death certificates, finding that most that listed Covid-19 also named other contributing problems. They included conditions such as diabetes, known to increase the danger of severe disease, or conditions such as pneumonia that occurred in the chain of events leading to the deaths..If signed into law, S. 2023 would take a number of steps to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, including requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate Part D drug prices, allowing the re-importation of drugs from Canada, closing the "doughnut hole" three years earlier than current law, and prohibiting "pay-for-delay" deals between drug manufacturers.."More good news: More than 90% of beneficiaries reported following advice on hand washing, social distancing, mask wearing, and avoiding large groups and sick people."
