A National Committee advocate with one of our new Protect Medicare and Social Security Benefits signs!
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May is Older Americans Month, but the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans are putting a serious damper on the celebration. Yes, candidate Trump promised not to touch Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
But his administration has been actively undermining those pledges. Budget Director Mick Mulvaney — who once called Social Security a Ponzi scheme — questioned the legitimacy of Social Security Disability Insurance — and wouldn’t promise a Presidential veto of legislation to privatize Medicare (a pet project of House Speaker Paul Ryan).
President Trump champions the GOP’s American Health Care Act, which guts
Medicaid, undermines the solvency of Medicare, and allows insurers to
charge older Americans up to five times as much as people in their 20s.
More on this issue here via The Hill.
President Trump’s budget hurts seniors. From cuts to Social Security and Medicare to vital services, his 2020 budget will devastate older Americans.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Do older Americans want bigger Social Security checks and expanded Medicare coverage – or do they want their benefits cut?
That is the fundamental question for seniors and their families with less than two weeks until the mid-term elections. The majority party in Congress has proposed time and again to slash Social Security and Medicare benefits under the guise of ‘entitlement reform.’ Leader Mitch McConnell just attributed the swelling federal debt to retirees’ earned benefits – when the real culprit was the 2017 tax package that mainly benefited the wealthy and big corporations.
The majority party’s 2018 and 2019 budgets would have taken a $500 billion bite out of Medicare and $64 billion from Social Security. And make no mistake – conservative tropes like raising the eligibility age, imposing a more meager inflation formula, and means testing are benefit cuts.
Read more from our op-ed by clicking here.
These are significant sums, Kaufman says. Still, when he hears Republican lawmakers denounce Medicare and propose reducing benefits, he becomes livid and cites a statistic he saw on the website of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. Already, he reports, 45 percent of retirees spend more than one-third of their Social Security benefits on health care, from co-pays for care, to premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket fees for services – such as going to the eye doctor, dentist or audiologist – that are not provided. “We should be on the offensive, pushing for something better,” he says. “What we need is a single payer or socialized health care system.”
via Truth-Out.
Related Reading:
New Poll Shows Majorities Do Not Support GOP Proposals for Social Security and Medicare.
By the time the last of the baby boomers reaches age 65, it is expected that close to 80 million people will be covered through Medicare. Together with Social Security and Medicaid, Medicare forms the bedrock of economic and health security for today’s seniors and individuals who are disabled.
via NCPSSM.
- In 2013, Medicare beneficiaries’ average out-of-pocket health care spending was 41 percent of average per capita Social Security income; the share increased with age and was higher for women than men, especially among people ages 85 and over.
- Medicare beneficiaries’ average out-of-pocket health care spending is projected to rise as a share of average per capita Social Security income, from 41 percent in 2013 to 50 percent in 2030.
Related Reading:
We are asking Congress to BOOST Social Security benefits for all working Americans.
If you agree, please sign our petition.
While the government shutdown has not affected Social Security or Medicare, low income seniors receiving food assistance remain at risk. Some five million older Americans receive grocery vouchers from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and administered by the states.
USDA is one of the federal agencies affected by the government shutdown. Fortunately, January’s SNAP benefits were paid, and the agency issued February’s payments ten days early before it officially ran out of funding last weekend. But this leaves all SNAP beneficiaries – including low income seniors – in a bind for two reasons.
Read more from this blog post by clicking through.
Harwood: Retirement age?
Stivers: We need to come together. I think we need to say, “You give a little, we give a little,” and figure out how to sustain Medicare and Social Security into the future. The other thing on Medicare is we have to bend the cost curve on health care.
via CNBC.
Related Reading:
We have been keeping track of Members of Congress’ statements on wanting to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and health care in 2018.
You can find the whole project by clicking here.
House GOP Votes to Gut Medicaid, Weaken Medicare & Put Seniors’ healthcare at Risk
The National Committee strongly condemns the American Health Care Act (AHCA) just passed by the House, which needlessly puts the healthcare of millions of older Americans in jeopardy. “Despite the bill’s name, risking the health of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens to give the wealthy an $880 billion tax cut is tremendously uncaring — and does not reflect real American values…”
More on this issue via Entitled to Know.
