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AMAC Symposium Speaker Calls for Insurance Market Overhaul
In an address titled “Principles for a New Health Care Program,” presented at last month’s AMAC National Health Care Symposium in Washington, Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Dr. Robert E. Moffit called for major overhaul of the our country’s health insurance…
Disability Is Not Just a Metaphor
“Freaks” are having a moment. The Kennedy Center’s acclaimed production of Side Show, about conjoined sisters at the circus, is rumored to be mulling a move to Broadway. The next season of American Horror Story will, similarly, be about a freak show. And in recent months there…
Social Security Disability Taxation – Curious And Confusing According to Tax Court
The treatment of social security disability payments is probably one of the more unfair aspects of the Internal Revenue Code. Every once in a while you will see it sneak up on somebody, which highlights the unfairness. The Tax Court…
Will High U.S. National Debt Kill Social Security Benefits Programs In 2015?
The 2014 unemployment extension bill keeps getting kicked down the road by Congress, but it’s possible that a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) may indicate hard times ahead for Social Security programs in general, including unemployment benefits. In…
Nordstrom ads feature models with disabilities
It’s not easy to find models with disabilities in ads for the fashion and beauty industry — unless you look in the Nordstrom catalog. The company has been using models with disabilities since 1997 and continues the tradition in its…
What you don’t know about Social Security could hurt you
If you’re thinking that the friendly guy working at the Social Security office is your financial advisor…stop thinking that way. It’s not that he doesn’t want to help you, it’s that he can’t. Even as about 10,000 Americans reach retirement…
What Are the Causes of Projected Growth in Spending for Social Security and Major Health Care Programs?
A CBO blog post yesterday noted that federal spending is projected to rise noticeably relative to the size of the economy over the long term because of growth in spending for Social Security, major health care programs, and interest on…
Disability insurance finds fewer takers
A rarely discussed component of many employee benefit packages is on the decline, and insurance providers in Maine say they are concerned that the problem is about to get worse. Providers of long-term disability insurance in the Portland area, a major…
The CBO Finds Medicare Looking a Little Healthier, Social Security Looking a Little Worse, and the Overall Budget a Mess
The Congressional Budget Office released their annual report on the long-term budget outlook today, and you’ll be forgiven for thinking you’ve heard this story before: The long-term debt picture is an unsustainable mess because of our health and retirement systems and accumulating interest…
Why Taxing the Rich is the Wrong Way to Fix Social Security
It may feel good to jack up payments by wealthier earners, but Social Security is a safety net, not a tax collector. How do you categorize the money that comes out of your paycheck to fund Social Security? Do you…