Posted on 10/20/2015 5:31:34 AM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
More than 65 million seniors got their pockets picked last week, and the hue and cry could be heard across the country.
The Social Security Administration announced Thursday that there would be no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2016.
Yes, America’s elderly, who paid into the system with each paycheck, are getting screwed.
And that’s due to the way the SSA’s COLA calculation is done — it essentially comes directly from the notoriously inaccurate Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Why not use the “Core CPI,” which strips out food and energy and is not subject to the volatile swings in commodities prices?
As if the static benefit level were not bad enough, Medicare Part D is jacking up costs — though the premiums have to remain the same.
Next year for Medicare Part D, seniors will see significant increases in what I call the “Real Costs.”
Medicare’s deductible in 2015 is $320. In 2016, it’s going up to $360 — a 12.5 percent increase.
The Initial Coverage Limit will be raised to $3,310 in 2016 from $2,960 in 2015 — an 11.8 percent increase.
And even more unfair: The Catastrophic Limit is going up from $7,062 this year to $7,515 in 2016. That’s a 6.4 percent jump in a coverage the elderly need most.
To deny seniors even a modest increase in benefits is unscrupulous. But it is beyond distasteful to have Medicare raise deductibles and coverage thresholds and claim there is no cost increase in Medicare premiums.
The Obama administration has the distinction of being the only presidency to rook seniors not once but three times — 2010, 2011 and 2016.
That’s a hat trick no leader should want.
Executive orders are now commonly used to skirt regulations.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
http://nypost.com/2015/10/17/dear-john-82-year-old-cant-get-insurance-for-hearing-aid/
If Trump were to mention that...the GOPe would try to strike him down. The left supports this stuff openly...and “our” side says nothing.
I do not understand the argument here. I, as a Social Security recipient, get screwed if my projected benefits are below the actuarial value of what has been taken from me over the years. Since many, if not most, recipients receive far more than they paid in, I do not see how the headline is remotely accurate. As for changes in Medicare, they are indicative of the inability of the Government to manage health costs. They are essentially forcing recipients to manage the costs for them, by rationing their own use of healthcare.
Even with an effective tax rate of almost 15% on income up to near $115K, the Ponzi scheme cannot keep up with the benefits.
Best way to go now is to scrap the SS Tax and fund it though the general receipts and at the same time stop paying the miserable 2% transfer interest on the “loans” for the cash which was long ago squandered. The bankrupt system will soon be insolvent so why not take the hit now? Of course no one wants to be on the hook for raising everyone’s effective income tax rate 15% but it would reduce business costs 7% at the same time making domestic businesses more competitive IMO.
Medicare part D didn’t come into existence until 2006. It has no funding mechanism, so it is paid for completely out of debt borrowing. Since no one made any contributions toward it, I don’t think you can say that Seniors are being screwed because their deductible went up.
Meanwhile Social Security not getting a COLA is terribly unfair to all Seniors. The formula says "no inflation" because of low fuel costs. So what about Seniors who can't afford to drive much anymore, or by preference or capability, choose not to do so? The formula should be written to account for actual expenses Seniors have. What I see is utility bills...sewer, water, electric, cable, phone going up every month. Budget nutritional foods have had increased prices this year. And those have to be paid.
failure to get a raise is NOT a cut. that is democrat politispeak.
You mean Liberal wishful thinking by FDR and company combined with Liberal raiding of the Social Security money for their bribes and kickback industries have not worked out the way Liberal Fantasy Dreamers and Liberal Liars/thieves said it would?
No way!
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”-- James Madison, the father of the U.S. Constitution
Sadly, almost no one in politics today will say this, including all of the supposed "conservatives" running for president. They are all functionally supporters of Franklin Roosevelt's unconstitutional New Deal and Lyndon Johnson's unconstitutional Great Society. They're all oath-breaking socialists, to be as blunt as I can be about it.
How can that be? It’s built on the backs of dead Americans. All we need is more dead Americans. Obamacare can solve it. If you like your life, you can keep your life. Period.
This would be a good way for Trump to pick up the senior vote, by changing the way COLA’s are calculated. Additionally, repealing the social security income tax created by the Clinton administration.
Obamacare Robs Medicare of $716 Billion to Fund Itself
August 01, 2012
Last week, a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report updated the amount of money Obamacare robs out of Medicare from $500 billion to a whopping $716 billion between 2013 and 2022.
According to the CBO, the payment cuts in Medicare include:
*Subtract $25 billion total between DSH payments and other provisions for spending that was cut from Medicaid and CHIP.
In total, Obamacare raids Medicare by $716 billion from 2013 to 2022. Despite Medicare facing a 75-year unfunded obligation of $37 trillion, Obamacare uses the savings from the cuts to pay for other provisions in Obamacare, not to help shore up Medicare’s finances.
The GOP could be doing this now.
That they don't speaks volumes.
When the cost of housing, heating, medical care, etc. increase 10-20% and your social security check stays the same - that *is* a cut.
When the government uses their flawed price index to tell you there is no inflation so you get no increase in your check - that *is* a cut.
Take another look at what you wrote here.
If Obama had taken zero from Medicare, or twice what he did, Medicare would be headed for exactly the same smoking train wreck. So (in all seriousness this time) what difference, really, does it make??
If Social Security is your only source of income, you’re doing it wrong.
Stop making sense. There is no increase amount that is enough when you are talking to check receivers.
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