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WI Alliance for Retired Americans’ Mike Pyne: Let’s get behind bills …
On July 30, Medicare turned 48 and this earned program is more important than ever. Before Medicare was enacted, only 50 percent of seniors had health insurance and 35 percent lived in poverty. That was a gloomy time when even…
Mark L. Hopkins: What is wrong with ‘Obamacare’?
The best predictor of the future is still the past. Thus, when we try to predict the ramifications of full enactment of the Affordable Care Act that goes into effect six months from now, the best we can do is…
Is It Time for Mandatory Savings Accounts?
The popular image of the good life in America and the prospect of a decent, financially secure retirement have become synonymous over the past half-century. Problem is, the evidence is overwhelming that America’s retirement savings system is broken. Take the private…
Are Hospitals Already Saving Money for Medicare?
Medicare continues to exhibit remarkably slow growth: at a modest 3 percent over the past year. That’s great news, but a debate is raging about whether this is caused by a weak economy (and therefore will reverse as the economy recovers) or…
Federal electronic payments program roils some seniors
The Treasury Department calls its public education campaign Go Direct — as in have your Social Security checks or other federal benefits go directly into your bank account. Treasury officials earlier this year notified recipients of federal benefits that they…
Survey: The 5 Biggest Retirement Saving Mistakes
Saving for retirement shouldn’t be a guessing game. It should begin with your first job and in most cases not stop until you are collecting Social Security. Yet millions of people struggle to do anything at all, and still more…
Top U.S. Fiscal Problem Is Future Deficits, Economists Say
The biggest fiscal challenge facing the U.S. is the size of projected deficits in the 2020s and 2030s, according to a survey of business economists. The National Association for Business Economics surveyed 220 of its members in July and August. The…
Win for Life Insurer in Unclaimed Property Arena
Scrutiny over the life insurance industry’s “asymmetric” use of the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File has come primarily from the regulatory community in the form of unclaimed property audits and market conduct examinations, where life insurers do not have the benefit of a…
US NABE Panel Does Not See Fed Tapering As Soon as September
A panel of 220 economists surveyed by the National Association of Business Economics overwhelmingly rejected the notion the Federal Reserve will begin tapering its purchase program as soon as September while seeing deficits projected for the next two decades as…
Puerto Ricans charged with Social Security fraud
Federal authorities had arrested at least 68 people and were seeking seven more Wednesday in a multimillion dollar Social Security fraud case in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which they say has one of the highest rates of fraud…