By Alex Moore  On March 25th, President Trump issued a new executive order that requires the Federal government to stop issuing paper checks for Federal payments, including benefits payments. The change will take effect on September 30, 2025, and it will affect Social Security beneficiaries.  In the executive order’s text, the administration highlighted several benefits of the ...

By Alex Moore  Starting April 14th, the Social Security Administration (SSA) requires individuals who cannot access their online my Social Security accounts to complete an in-person identity verification process at a Social Security office. This applies to those applying for retirement, survivor, or auxiliary (spouse or child) benefits, but not to those applying for Medicare, disability, ...

By Susan Stewart, Licensed Insurance Agent  Many veterans are unaware that they can be eligible for Medicare Advantage benefits, provided they have both Medicare Part A and Part B. This is important because while the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers healthcare coverage, in my experience as a licensed insurance agent working with veterans, the care ...

By Congresswoman Val Hoyle (OR-04)  In Oregon’s 4th Congressional District, we have more Social Security recipients than 87 percent of Congressional districts nationwide. When I was back home in Oregon, I held nine town halls where I heard from seniors sharing the same message over and over again: they are scared about losing their Social Security ...

By Edward Cates, Chairman, TSCL   Since the Trump administration assumed leadership at the start of 2025, it has pushed for a sweeping transformation of the federal government. That extends to the Social Security Administration (SSA), which has announced that it will undergo a major organizational transformation.    According to a press release from the SSA, the transformation will ...

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 ...