Last week Congressman John Larson (D-Conn.), Chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced a revised version of the Social Security 2100 bill. The bill has nearly 200 c ...
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Help is Available for Some Kinds of Medical Debt
According to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, per capita health care spending for the elderly in the US is substantially higher than for the population as a whole. One reason for this is high presc ...
Red Cross Announces Urgent Need for Blood Donors
This is not a legislative issue, but we are giving the information because it could affect many seniors, as well as others, of course. Recently, the Red Cross announced it faces an emergency blood and platelet shortag ...
Will Medicare Improvement Make It?
One potential casualty of the negotiations taking place among the Democrats is an expansion of Medicare that would add dental, vision and hearing benefits. The provision is favored by progressives, but at $350 billion ov ...
No End in Site for the Stalemate in Congress
For the last month, at least, we’ve been reporting each week on the fate of attempts by the slim Democratic majorities in Congress to put together legislation that would improve Medicare in one way or another. It is e ...
Democrats Still Unable to Agree on how to Lower Drug Prices
Because of unanimous Republican opposition to any current legislation being considered to lower prescription drug prices, all eyes are on the Democrats in both the House and the Senate. In particular, the two Senators r ...
How Bad are Things in Congress?
This is what the Associated Press says: Congress is an angry place these days. Four years of Trump’s bellicose presidency, the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters and the high stakes for Democra ...
Senate Passes Bill to Avoid Default
Despite a monumental work load before the end of the year, the Senate is not in session this week. Last week they managed to come up with enough votes to prevent a default on the national debt but they only pushed it of ...
Update: Social Security Benefits Lose 32 Percent of Buying Power
(Washington, DC) – Consumer price index data through August 2021 indicates that the 2022 COLA will likely be about 6 percent. But soaring inflation this year has deeply eroded the buying power of Social Security benefi ...
Dental, Vision and Hearing Benefits May also be on the Chopping Block
Democratic Congressional leaders had also hoped to include new benefits for seniors to cover dental, vision and hearing in their Medicare legislative package this year but those also appear to be in danger. According ...