Now Is Not the Time to Turn Our Backs on Seniors
“Now is not the time to turn our backs on seniors by cutting Social Security and Medicare!” declared Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi
NCPSSM President and House Members Team-Up to Tout New Prescription Drug Pricing Measures
NCPSSM President and CEO Max Richtman joined two Pennsylvania congressmen in announcing that seniors will benefit from the just-enacted Inflation Reduction Act. Richtman appeared last week at Circle Pharmacy in Philadelphia with representatives Brendan Boyle (D-PA) and Dwight Evans (D-PA).
House Passes Historic Prescription Drug Pricing Legislation
The U.S. House today passed historic legislation to bring down prescription drug prices for tens of millions of American seniors. The Inflation Reduction Act, which the Senate passed last weekend after intense negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, now goes to President Biden's desk for signature. It is the most sweeping health care legislation since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
Prescription Drug Price Reform of Historic Proportions
Those who refer to the Inflation Reduction Act passed by the Senate this past weekend as “historic” are not exaggerating. The Act represents the most muscular legislation to date to try to tame rising prescription drug prices, which can be devastating for seniors.
Ron Johnson’s Plan is Part of GOP Assault on Seniors’ Earned Benefits
Social Security and Medicare defenders often say that the public doesn’t understand the threat that Republicans pose to these programs. Indeed, many Republicans proclaim support for both while pushing proposals to undermine them. But lately it seems as if Republicans are going out of their way to lay bare their intentions – or, as some put it, “to say the quiet part out loud.” Earlier this week, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said during an interview that Social Security and Medicare should no longer be mandatory spending programs
Much for Seniors to Cheer, Big Pharma to Jeer, in Senate Rx Deal
News of a deal between Senators Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer for a broader reconciliation package including climate, inflation, and prescription
Manchin Pulls the Football Away from Schumer – and Medicare
Senator Joe Manchin has once again pulled the proverbial football away from Chuck Schumer just before the kick. After negotiating with the Senate Majority Leader over a pared-back version of the Build Back Better bill, Sen. Manchin has once again withdrawn his support - not for the entire plan, but for key components that would have helped seniors. He declared on Thursday that he would not support any new tax provisions. One of these provisions would have closed a loophole, compelling the wealthy to pay a 3.8% investment tax. The revenue would have been directed to the Medicare Part A trust fund, which is currently projected to run dry in 2028.
Schumer-Manchin Negotiations May Yield Some Wins for Seniors
The negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) over a new budget reconciliation deal have been great fodder for political journalists, but they are also incredibly important to American seniors. Senators Schumer and Manchin are haggling over a pared-down version of the Build Back Better legislation, which the West Virginia Senator effectively killed earlier this year, designed to pass with only Democratic votes via the reconciliation process. The new package reportedly retains some crucial items for older Americans: prescription drug pricing reform and Medicare solvency.
House Members Urge CMS to Expand Medicare Dental Coverage
More than 100 members of the U.S. House have sent a letter to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in an effort to expand Medicare dental coverage. (Traditional Medicare only covers “medically necessary” dental care in a narrowly defined way that excludes not only routine care, but many illness-related treatments.) The members implored CMS administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to broaden the definition of “medically necessary” to cover many more types of dental care.
Republican Roundtable Revives Wrongheaded Ideas for Social Security
GOP members of the House Ways and Means Committee held an all-Republican roundtable on the future of the program on June 29. That’s a little like holding an all-Red Sox roundtable on the future of the Yankees. Republicans have spent four decades devising ways to undermine Social Security – including their triad of terrible ideas: raising the retirement age, means-testing benefits, and privatizing the program