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How does the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act impact Medicare?
Income-related Medicare premiums: Some Medicare beneficiaries will pay an extra amount for Part D because of their yearly income. The extra amount is paid directly to Social Security (not the Medicare plan). The income level that drives the additional premium…
Social Security, Medicare not the cause of US financial problems
The Washington elite are returning to their obsession with the long-term budget crisis, which means extremists are once again calling for benefit cuts to Social Security and Medicare. As the government reopened following the shutdown, President Barack Obama called for cooler…
What a small-ball budget deal could look like
Democrats, along with some Republicans, are desperate to reverse the across-the-board cuts. But in the current political climate, that means the cuts have to be replaced with savings elsewhere. So Congress is now digging through the couch cushions to scrape together…
Worldwide identity thieves steal millions in tax refunds
The Internal Revenue Service sent 655 tax refunds to a single address in Kaunas, Lithuania, failing to recognize they were fradulent. A2011 audit has since detected the fraudulent claims for refunds and corrected the procedure to prevent it from happening…
Calculating the financial impact of working longer
Often clients and friends who are baby boomers ask me: “How much longer do I have to keep working?” This is a familiar question, as baby boomers who once thought retirement was right around the corner now see it as way…
Baby boomers generally oppose changing the rules on Social Security
Baby boomers could be affected by the outcome of budget talks underway again in Washington, because in the interest of saving Social Security, those talks could change some of the rules; current projections have Social Security going dry in 20…
House Ways and Means Committee Misleads Hill on Chained CPI
The House Ways and Means Committee added another chapter to its epic misinformation campaign to sell chained CPI to Congress, the media and general public as the basis for Social Security cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). It sent a press release to all Hill…
Paying for retirement
The year 2033 is marked on government calendars as the year when funding for Social Security will no longer meet obligations for full service. Either more money will be needed, or benefits will have to be cut by at least…
Congress duped us on entitlement benefits
Last week’s column, “Is There a Way Out?”, generated quite a few responses, some a bit angry. Some people were offended by my reference to Social Security and Medicare as entitlements or handouts. They said that they worked for 45…
Disabled? Social Security can help
If you are disabled and you’re no longer able to work, you should learn how Social Security can help you. Disability is something most people do not like to think about; however, the unfortunate reality is this: the chances that…