A High-Level Look at Social Security’s Health
Jeremy Glaser (Morningstar Senior Director, Editorial), discusses a variety of issues associated with Social Security in an interview with Tim Steffen Baird’s Director of Advanced Planning on www.morningstar.com. The first part of the interview deals with the Medicare hold harmless provision and its potential impact on the 2019 cost-of-living adjustment for some beneficiaries, with Steffen providing a recap of the logic behind the provision and the manner in which it can affect certain individuals. You can view the interview video and read the transcript on Morningstar’s website here…
After reviewing the Medicare premium issue and its affect on benefit increases, Steffen provides a quick review of where Social Security’s funding originates, and subsequently addresses the longer-term financial health of Social Security as a senior benefit program. In the remarks that follow, he reviews some of the key points in Social Security’s pending insolvency dilemma, and provides an overview of some of the reform measures currently in discussion. Among these are the usual topics discussed, like an increase in payroll taxes, removal of the cap on taxable earnings, or cuts in benefits for either current or future beneficiaries. In referring to the chronology associated with reform, Steffen observes that “the longer they wait to do something, the bigger the hits going to have to be.”
The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) concurs with Steffen’s assessment of the need for urgency, and has aggressively advocated for a strengthening of Social Security. Most recently, AMAC has developed a bipartisan compromise bill, titled “Social Security Guarantee Act,” taking selected portions of bills introduced by Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) and Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) and merging them with AMAC’s original legislative framework to create the new Act. AMAC representatives have been resolute in their mission to get the attention of lawmakers in Washington, meeting with many, many congressional offices and their legislative staffs over the past several years. Learn more about AMAC’s Social Security Guarantee here…