Government: No benefit hike for Social Security next year
Thanks to decreasing gas costs, the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) in 2016 will be zero. However this may be even worse for some Medicare beneficiaries. A little known exemption (waiver) means current medicare recipients will not have any increase. The waiver also extends to several other groups. The impact will affect those who begin receiving Medicare benefits in 2016. The monthly premium increase will be about $ 60.00. This increase occurs despite the fact that Medicare's reimbursements have decreased over the past several years due to many factors.
Normally the COLA offsets any Medicare premium increases annually.
Since 2010 there have been three years where there was no COLA.
Social Security benefits are complex. The age at which you apply, your marriage status and other factors will affect your monthly benefits.
Some seniors may benefit from applying for Medicare early, before January 2016. Advice from Health Train Express "Check with your social security office.
A Bad Actor, Not A Pharmaceutical Innovator Causes Outrage over Drug Prices.
A profiteer masquerading as a pharmaceutical company executive has set the Internet afire with his 5,000% price increase for a rare but important drug used by AIDS and some cancer patients.
Martin Shkreli, a 32-year-old former hedge fund manager, cornered the market on Daraprim, a drug used to treat a life-threatening parasitic infection. His start-up company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, bought rights to this old but effective generic drug and used his temporary monopoly power to dramatically jack up prices.
Shkreli is by no stretch of the imagination a pharmaceutical innovator, yet The Washington Postused the news to implicitly indict the industry in a front-page article, “Pricey pill is rare case of transparency in health care.”
“Shkreli’s actions were shocking for a simple reason: It was an unusual moment of complete transparency in health care, where motives, prices and how the system works are rarely ever talked about so nakedly,” Post reporter Carolyn V. Johnson wrote. “Shkreli’s company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of Daraprim from $18 to $750 per pill because he could.”
The article implies that these actions are a windowinto the pricing practices of other pharmaceutical companies. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Established pharmaceutical companies invest billions of dollars in research over more than a decade to bring a single new drug to market. Companies must recoup their investment if they are to continue to invest in research for new treatments and cures.
Comparing Turing Pharmaceuticals to established pharmaceutical companies does not have legs. Turing did not invest in creating this drug. It bought rights to a drug approved 62 years ago and which has sold for as little as $1 a pill by previous licensers. Recouping years of investment in research was not Shkreli’s agenda.
Still, even someone as arrogant as Shkreli responds to public outrage over his outrageous price hike for Daraprim. After the public outcry, Shkreli said he would lower the price by a yet-undisclosed amount. It is hard to see any justification for anything remotely close to the $750 price. He was taking advantage of a temporary monopoly on this drug to, in turn, take advantage of patients with cancer and AIDS. How much worse does it get?
What Shkreli needs is not only public pressure but genuine competition
