By Alex Moore Despite making cuts to other government agencies and services, the new administration has vowed to protect Medicare and Social Security. It has also, primarily through new Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has called to “Make America Healthy Again” by reducing chronic diseases. Want to know one of the best ...

By Daisy Brown, Legislative Liaison, TSCL So far this year, Congress has been busy introducing new legislation to improve Americans’ Social Security benefits. Two bills, the Social Security Expansion Act and the Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act, are particularly noteworthy. In this article, we’ll examine both bills, looking at what major changes they would enact and providing ...

By Edward Cates, Chairman, TSCL With a new presidential administration, only one thing is inevitable: change. As the Trump administration has taken power, the changes made at the top of the Social Security and Medicare agencies can give important clues about how the programs will evolve over the next four years. In this article, we’ll look at ...

By Alex Moore This January, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it has recovered $31 million in federal payments that improperly went to dead people in a five-month pilot project. The Treasury Department undertook this effort after Congress granted it temporary access to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) Full Death Master File, which is the most ...

By Susan Stewart, Licensed Insurance Agent I lived in England for 10 years, worked, got a driver’s license, joined a book club, and needed medical care. There, virtually all costs that we’d associate with health insurance here in the states are covered through the National Health Service (NHS), a government agency. The NHS is funded primarily ...

By Daisy Brown, Legislative Liaison, TSCL In January, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the next 15 drugs whose prices it will negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies, using powers granted by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Weight-loss drugs Ozempic, Rybelsus, and Wegovy made the list, potentially spelling a turning point for seniors’ ...

By Edward Cates, Chairman, TSCL The new Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, has spent a lot of time in the headlines over the last few months. Headed by Elon Musk, the agency was established by the Trump administration through executive order to modernize federal software while maximizing governmental efficiency and productivity. In its first ...

By Susan Stewart, Licensed Insurance Agent I lived in England for 10 years, worked, got a driver’s license, joined a book club, and needed medical care. Here are facts and observations written from the point of observation rather than deep investigative reporting. In the U.K., prescriptions currently cost £9.90 each. That is about $12. In 2012, they were ...

By Daisy Brown, Legislative Liaison, TSCL The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by former President Biden in January, will raise benefits for 3.2 million Americans who receive pensions for work that Social Security doesn’t cover. This means that many public workers—such as firefighters, teachers, and police officers—will no longer have their retirement benefits penalized ...

By Alex Moore Dementia affected more than 6.7 million Americans in 2023, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), with 14 million projected cases by 2060. The disease is brutal, not just for patients, but their families as well. It’s a major reason why 53 million Americans, according to an estimate from AARP ...