Most seniors on Medicare will pay $99.90 per month this year for Part B outpatient coverage. But how would you like to pay 10 percent more for that coverage, or 50 percent more? Failing to sign up for Medicare at the right time can cost you – big time. The monthly Part B premium jumps [...] [read full article…]
The social safety net that protects seniors already is frayed, but expect politicians to try poking some new holes in the mesh during the 2012 campaign season. This year, lawmakers and presidential candidates have batted around proposals to privatize Social Security, raise its retirement age or reduce cost-of-living adjustments. Medicare privatization has been pushed in [...] [read full article…]
Older Americans might be thinking they dodged a bullet when the deficit cutting supercommittee process ground to a halt this week without an agreement. Many were watching the negotiations warily, worried that Social Security or Medicare benefits might be cut as part of a grand bargain on the deficit. But even though the supercommittee has [...] [read full article…]
Now that the Super Committee has ground to a halt, the threatened “sword of Damocles” is poised to slash $1.2 trillion in federal spending. As we move to this next phase of the budget wars, deficit hawks will rev up one of their most phony arguments — namely, that protecting entitlement programs rewards the old [...] [read full article…]
The Congressional Super Committee negotiations are coming down to the wire, and Republicans are demanding that Medicare privatization be included in any final budget deal. The news comes on the heels of GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s recent call for creation of a “premium support” option that would let seniors choose between traditional fee-for-service Medicare [...] [read full article…]
