JustCare

Tag: Benefits

  • Social Security benefits need to increase

    Social Security benefits need to increase

    Michael Sainato reports for The Guardian on Social Security’s failure to provide many retired Americans a livable income. Consequently, millions of people in their 70’s are still working in order to cover the cost of basic necessities, if they can find a job. At the same time, people with long-term disabilities are struggling to get Social Security benefits, reports Nancy Altman in The Hill.

    Millions of Americans receive Social Security benefits of less than $10,000 a year. The average benefit is little more than $18,000 a year. These benefits represent all or most of people’s annual income; it is too often not enough to survive.

    What’s equally troubling is that many older adults between the ages of 50 and 64 lost their jobs during the pandemic. Most of them relied on those jobs for their health insurance. And, many of them have not been able to find new jobs, likely in part because their health insurance costs are so high.

    It’s time for Congress to increase Social Security benefits, which have not kept up with inflation over the years. If you consider Social Security benefits as a portion of people’s earnings before retirement, benefits in the US are not as high as they are in other wealthy nations. Moreover, in the US, these benefits can be taxed and they generally go towards the cost of people’s Medicare Part B premiums.

    It’s also time for Congress to ensure that the Social Security Administration is granting disability benefits to the people who qualify for them in a timely fashion. President Biden has not ousted Trump’s SSA appointee, Commissioner Andrew Saul. Saul has made a point of denying people Social Security benefits to people who are entitled to them in the name of “program integrity.” Rather than ensuring that people who have earned their Social Security benefits receive them, SSA is making people with serious disabilities prove repeatedly that they cannot work.

    Because Social Security benefits are often not meeting people’s needs, some Americans are moving to Mexico in retirement; it costs much less to live there.

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  • Senator Sanders proposes reining in drug prices and expanding Medicare

    Senator Sanders proposes reining in drug prices and expanding Medicare

    Burgess Everett writes for Politico about Senator Bernie Sanders’ plan to rein in Medicare prescription drug prices and use the savings to improve and expand Medicare through the reconciliation process in Congress. President Biden has also called for expanding Medicare. But, fearing a loss of revenue, some stakeholders are sure to push back hard.

    Sanders proposes both Medicare drug price negotiation and an expansion of Medicare to people 55 or 60 and older, with coverage of dental care, vision care and hearing aids. All these changes would be included in the infrastructure bill that Congress is now working on.

    Investing in infrastructure is part of the next reconciliation bill, which will have a big impact on our budget and therefore only needs to pass Congress by majority vote. Any reforms that do not have a budgetary impact are subject to the filibuster and cannot be passed without at least 60 votes. The infrastructure legislation will also raise taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

    Sanders projects that Medicare drug price negotiation would save $450 billion over ten years. It would pay for the additional dental, vision and hearing benefits he is proposing with $100 billion to spare. He estimates that they will cost $350 billion over ten years.

    Lowering the age of Medicare eligibility has significant public support. According to a Fall 2020 GoHealth survey, seven in ten people polled who were not on Medicare favor lowering the age of eligibility. Nearly six in ten people with Medicare support this policy. If Medicare eligibility were lowered to age 60, Medicare would cover as many as 23 million more people.

    Hospitals are sure to object to lowering the age of Medicare eligibility. Medicare rates are significantly lower than commercial insurance rates. Hospitals fear the potential loss of revenue. But, they should recognize that they don’t make as much money as they think they do in the commercial market. Among other things, many face 20 percent denial rates from commercial insurers and have higher administrative costs than they do with traditional Medicare.

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  • Social Security: What to know before claiming benefits

    Social Security: What to know before claiming benefits

    Bloomberg News reports that Americans lose trillions of dollars because they do not claim Social Security benefits when they should. Here’s what you should know before claiming Social Security benefits.

    If you need Social Security benefits to meet your daily needs, you should claim them as soon as possible. But, if you can wait to claim them, you will receive higher Social Security income. The difference between taking benefits at 62 rather than at 70 is stark. For example, if your monthly check would be $725 at 62, you could get $1,280 if you waited until 70.

    Put differently, if your full retirement age (FRA) is 66 and you can wait until 70 to claim Social Security benefits, you get 32 percent more in monthly benefits for your lifetime than you would if you claim benefits at 66. You get 8 percent more for each year you delay claiming benefits after age 66 up to age 70.

    If you were born between 1943 and 1954, your full retirement age (FRA) is 66, though you may claim benefits any time between age 62 and 70.  (If you were born in 1955, your FRA is 66 and 2 months; your FRA increases by 2 months each year until 1960 when it is 67.) If you claim benefits at 62, you get 25 percent a month less each month for your lifetime than you would if you waited to claim until you are 66. To learn about how claiming benefits early disproportionately hurts people with low incomes, click here.

    Of course many factors go into when you should claim benefits. If you’re in good health and can wait, you will ensure a higher monthly income throughout your life.  Moreover, if you’re married and earn more than your spouse, delaying your receipt of benefits, will ensure increased Social Security income for your spouse after you pass. On the other hand, if you’re in poor health, it might be wise to claim benefits early so you are able to get back as much as possible from Social Security.

    It’s wise to confirm that Social Security has correct information about your income. You can check online by creating a “my Social Security account” at https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/.  Once you do that, you will get a Social Security Statement that shows the income information Social Security has on file. Let Social Security know right away if you find a mistake.

    What benefits does your spouse get? Because Social Security is insurance designed to protect families, your spouse, even your divorced spouse if you were married at least ten years, is entitled to Social Security benefits based on your income. The spousal benefit amount is half of the amount of your benefit if that amount is larger than what your spouse would receive based on his or her own income. And, after you pass, your surviving spouse or divorced spouse if you were married at least ten years, is entitled to your full Social Security benefits if that is larger than the amount your spouse would otherwise get based on his or her own income.

    Today, just four percent of people wait until age 70 to claim benefits. More than seven in ten people claim benefits at 62 or 63.

    The National Association for Social Insurance toolkit provides questions to ask based on a range of situations in which you might find yourself, including whether you should keep working and claim benefits. To read the toolkit, click here.

    NB: On average Social Security replaces only 40 percent of a person’s pre-retirement income.

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  • Beware: Social Security scams abound

    Beware: Social Security scams abound

    If you get a call or email from anyone claiming to need your Social Security number or other personal information, including anyone who says he or she works for Social Security, do not give out this information. Beware: Social Security scams abound.

    In one Social Security scam, scammers call and pretend that they work for Social Security. They tell people receiving Social Security benefits that they are due additional money from Social Security, and then ask them to verify their personal information.  With that information, scammers can alter people’s addresses and telephone information on file with the Social Security Administration and redirect people’s Social Security checks to their own bank accounts.

    Phone scams are common and come in many different forms. (See this Just Care post on financial scams and why you should beware of strangers offering help.) Back in March 2017, Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General reported that people were receiving recorded messages that Social Security had suspended their benefits. People receiving Social Security benefits were told that to avoid arrest they must call a phone number; when they did, the scammers demanded money from them.

    While Social Security agents may sometimes call people, they will never ask for your personal information. And, you should never give anyone this information over the phone or via email, even if you think you know the person. Keep in mind that with new technology, scammers can impersonate relatives, sounding exactly like a child or grandchild.

    If you get a call from someone you believe is a scammer, pressuring you for money or personal information, hang up. You can report the call to 1-800-269-0271, the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General or contact Social Security online at https://oig.ssa.gov/report.

    Note: A version of this post was published on July 27, 2017.

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  • 2019 Social Security benefits should rise, but checks may not

    2019 Social Security benefits should rise, but checks may not

    As a result of inflation, people on fixed incomes find that their incomes decline in value over time.  One extremely important feature of Social Security is that its benefits are adjusted every year automatically to offset increases in inflation, so that the modest, but vital, benefits do not erode over time.  It is important to understand that these adjustments are not increases.  They are intended to simply allow people to tread water, to maintain their purchasing power.

    Unfortunately, the government’s cost of living adjustment for Social Security is based on inflation experienced by workers and not by retirees and people with disabilities who are unable to work. Older people and people with disabilities have, on average, higher health care costs; those costs tend to rise considerably faster than overall inflation.  For that and other reasons, Social Security beneficiaries generally experience higher costs of living than workers, so Social Security adjustments are often inappropriately low.  Consequently, Social Security beneficiaries are not even treading water, but rather losing ground. Nevertheless, even inadequate adjustments are better than none.

    The actual adjustment is not calculated until October, because it is based on the inflation rate of the third quarter of this year, which ends September 30, over the third quarter of last year.  Nevertheless, Social Security’s actuaries project at the end of each year their best estimate of what it will be.  For 2019, they have projected a cost of living adjustment of 2.4 percent, an average of about $32 more each month.  In recent months, though, the rate of inflation has increased, mainly as the result of increased oil prices.  Consequently, it looks like the adjustment might be higher than 2.5 percent – perhaps even as high as 3 percent.

    That is good news for Social Security beneficiaries, many of whom have little or no other income.  The bad news is that millions of people likely will not experience that full increase; some may not see any increase at all and others might see a decline in their overall income, as the result of rising health care costs.

    Most people with Medicare who receive monthly Social Security benefits have their Medicare Part B premiums deducted directly from those Social Security payments.  For these people, Congress has provided that the annual increase in the Medicare Part B premium must be no larger than the Social Security cost of living adjustment.

    So, they can’t go below zero, and lose some of their Social Security benefits, but they can certainly see their cost of living adjustment go completely to health care costs.  For those who do not have their Medicare premiums deducted automatically from their Social Security benefits, they can, indeed, lose even more ground.

    According to the most recent Medicare Trustees Report, average costs for Medicare Part B, the part covering doctors’ bills, is estimated to increase by $327 in 2019.  The average cost for Medicare Part D, insurance for prescription drug costs, is estimated to increase by $63.  That is a total increase of $390.  For those receiving a Social Security benefit of $15,000 – and tens of millions receive less than that — the adjustment will only add $375, if the 2019 Social Security adjustment is 2.5 percent.

    This is unacceptable.  After a lifetime of work, Americans should have enough guaranteed Social Security to maintain their standards of living.  The solution is three-fold. First, Congress should enact a better, more accurate measure of inflation for people receiving Social Security benefits. In addition, benefits, which are modest, but vital, should be increased. Finally, Congress should improve Medicare by expanding it to cover such vital services as hearing aids, dental work, and vision care.  Premiums, co-pays, and deductibles should be eliminated.  And everyone should be covered.  Improved Medicare for All will improve the nation’s health outcomes while costing a fraction of what we pay today.

    It is long past time to enact a more accurate cost of living adjustment for Social Security, expand its benefits, improve Medicare, and extend it to everyone.  That is profoundly wise policy.  It also represents the views of the vast majority of us.

    If you want Congress to expand Social Security, please sign this petition.

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  • CMS approves new enrollment hook for Medicare Advantage plans

    CMS approves new enrollment hook for Medicare Advantage plans

    While at first glance a Medicare Advantage plan may seem like a better deal than traditional Medicare, appearances can be deceiving. If you sign up for a Medicare Advantage plan, you severely limit your choice of doctors and hospitals. You also open yourself up to out-of-pocket costs for Medicare-covered services that can easily top $7,000 a calendar year, or $14,000 if you happen to need costly care over two calendar years, (e.g., in December and January). Susan Jaffe of Kaiser Health News reports that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)) has just given Medicare Advantage plans a new enrollment hook.

    Beginning in 2019, Medicare Advantage plans will be able to attract more members by offering non-medical benefits, such as transportation services and home-delivered meals. Before you sign up, consider what your health care options will be through the Medicare Advantage plan if you fall and break a hip, get hit by a car, or are diagnosed with a serious illness. You cannot compare Medicare Advantage plans based on the value of the care they deliver to people with costly and complex conditions; virtually no information is available. They compete for healthy people and design their plans and marketing to deter people who need care from joining.

    Without a doubt, non-medical benefits could be extremely valuable to everyone with Medicare. But, if CMS wants to test their value, it should offer the benefit to anyone with Medicare and have an outside independent agency assess whether and how they benefit people. As of now, unlike with traditional Medicare, it is impossible to get most data from Medicare Advantage plans that allow experts to assess and report their relative performance.

    Moreover, given the fraud committed by some Medicare Advantage plans and the inability of the vast majority to compete effectively against traditional Medicare, CMS should be making them more accountable or terminating their contracts. Because their administrative costs are high–largely going to profits–MedPAC, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, has reported that, overall, Medicare Advantage plans cost taxpayers about four percent more than traditional Medicare.

    Medicare Advantage plans should not be allowed to spend taxpayer money on benefits not available through traditional Medicare. In the vast majority of the country, these commercial plans cost taxpayers more. Any money they would otherwise allocate to non-medical benefits should go to reducing deductibles and cost-sharing to ensure access to care for their members with costly and complex conditions.

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  • For a wealthy country, the US offers stingy Social Security retirement benefits

    For a wealthy country, the US offers stingy Social Security retirement benefits

    A new chart from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development highlights how meager retirement benefits are in America.  As compared to 33 other countries, the United States ranks 27th, almost at the bottom, near Mexico, Slovenia and Korea. In short, comparatively, Americans have stingy Social Security retirement benefits.

    To be clear, the OECD chart illustrates that Social Security only replaces about 40 percent of the typical worker’s pre-retirement earnings.  According to Alicia Munnell, Director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, the OECD confirms that “the U.S. provides some of the lowest benefits in the developed world.”

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