Tag: medicare
Posted on Sun Sep 06, 2009 at 07:26:00 AM EST
Tags: Medicare, Social Security (all tags)
Given that Monday is Labor Day, I thought I'd take a look at my last Social Security/Medicare statment to see how much I've paid in taxes for both over my working life. The statement says I began paying into to Social Secuirty in 1965 (a part time job during high school) and continued up through the present. Given what I've paid in, and that I won't retire until 65 at the earliest, there's no way I'll get all that money back -- I won't live that long.I wonder how many people, like me, won't get their money back, either because they die, or they end up with reduced benfits due to the meme the Government is pushing that in 2014, SS will begin paying out more than it takes in, and by 2041 will not have enough to cover everyone? Why doesn't the excess paid in go back to our heirs if we die early?
I've also paid a bundle into Medicare, which I'm years away from collecting on. If I die, Medicare too keeps the money it collected from me. Do they use it to pay medical care for someone else?
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Posted on Tue May 12, 2009 at 07:32:09 PM EST
Tags: social security, medicare (all tags)
A new report on Social Security and Medicare says they will begin paying out more than they take in in taxes sooner than expected. Social Security could be depleted by 2037.
2037 is ages from now. I think we should leave social security alone. I certainly don't want to pay more in social security taxes for reduced benefits, which is one suggestion made by the report:
Social Security could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years with changes equivalent to an immediate 1.6 percent increase in the payroll tax (from a rate of 12.4 percent to 14.4 percent) or an immediate reduction in benefits of 13 percent or some combination of the two. Ensuring that the system remains solvent on a sustainable basis beyond the next 75 years would require larger changes because increasing longevity will result in people receiving benefits for ever longer periods of retirement.
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Posted on Wed Jul 09, 2008 at 06:17:30 PM EST
Tags: Medicare (all tags)
At least the Senate did one thing right today. It passed the bill to restore Medicare funding that the House passed in June. And, it's veto-proof.
The vote was 69-30 -- "a veto-proof margin," said Paul Precht, spokesman for the nonprofit Medicare Rights Center. Pres. Bush had threatened to veto the bill if passed.
The cuts went into effect July 1. They included an $1,800 cap on outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy.
I know about this because this weekend I got a letter from the TL mom's nursing home saying that her therapy would end July 1 unless she agrees to pay 100% of the cost due to the Senate not getting its act together before the recess to pass the House bill that would extend the deadline for the cuts to take effect. It failed to pass the bill then by one vote. The cuts were passed in 2005 but every year Congress has voted to extend the date the cuts take effect.
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