By Eric Pianin; The Fiscal Times ~ Dec 07, 2016
Amid turmoil over the future of Obamacare, Medicare and Medicaid, a bipartisan coalition on Capitol Hill is renewing its call for creation of a blue-ribbon commission to recommend changes in Social Security to avert a long-term financial crisis.
From Dow Jones Newswires; Fox Business ~ Dec 07, 2016
AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson plans to tell senators Wednesday his company’s deal with Time Warner Inc. will “disrupt” the long-established cable TV model in ways that will benefit consumers, according to his prepared testimony.
By Peter Sullivan, The Hill – Dec 6, 2016
President-elect Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) could be on a collision course over Medicare.
Ryan is defending his long-standing proposal to make the program more reliant on private plans, arguing such a change is necessary to keep Medicare fiscally sustainable.
But Trump said repeatedly during the campaign that he wanted to protect Medicare, not overhaul it. Vice President-elect Mike Pence reiterated that position on Sunday.
By Jay Hancock; Kaiser Health News ~ Dec 05, 2016
Penny Gentieu did not intend to phone 308 physicians in six different insurance plans when she started shopping for 2017 health coverage.
But a few calls suggested to Gentieu, a photographer who lives in Toledo, Ohio, that doctors listed as “taking new patients” in the health plans’ directories were not necessarily doing so.
By Allegra Kirkland, TMP livewire – Dec 5, 2016
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said that plans to overhaul Medicare remain “unresolved” in the lead-up to Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“We haven’t addressed that. That’s an unresolved issue. I haven’t even spoke with the president-elect about that,” Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in a Monday interview.
The House speaker has for years proposed radical reforms to Medicare that involve replacing the current system with private health insurance supported in part by government subsidies.
From Tim Maurer; Forbes ~ Dec 03, 2016
Advisors to President-elect Donald Trump have been vocal about rescinding the Department of Labor’s new fiduciary rule, introduced earlier this year to protect retirement savers from advice that isn’t fully in their best interests. The rule has already been under fire from the securities industry, and lack of presidential support could spell its ultimate demise.
By Erica Werner; The Associated Press ~ Dec 02, 2016
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of a key House committee is pledging that congressional Republicans will change Medicare in order to save it.
GOP Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, head of the Ways and Means Committee, insisted Thursday that Republicans won’t be deterred by the politics, even though Donald Trump won election as president on promises to protect the popular health care program for older Americans, and Democrats are already warning of a “war on seniors.”
By Dr. Kevin Campbell, Fox News – Dec 1, 2016
Now that President-elect Trump is beginning to form his Cabinet, there are many questions about how his administration will affect health care.
Mr. Trump has made it very clear that he intends to dismantle ObamaCare. Recently he has hinted at keeping certain provisions of the ACA in place. This week, with the appointment of Rep Tim Price to head the Health and Human Services (HHS), many Americans are left wondering what will happen to Medicare.
By David Lightman, McClatchyDC – Dec 1, 2016
WASHINGTON
Medicare needs to be revamped, House Speaker Paul Ryan emphasized Thursday, as he blasted Democrats for insisting Republicans are planning a war on seniors.
“I think what’s happening is you’re getting the latest wave of Democratic talking points to try and play Medi-scare politics,” the Wisconsin Republican said, “which is what they typically do every other Tuesday.”
By Kayleigh Kulp; CNBC ~ Nov 28, 2016
When one of Laurie Ziegler’s clients came to her with an IRS notice that they owed more than $10,000 in taxes, penalties and interest for a past tax return, the Wisconsin enrolled agent did a double take.
Not only did the couple’s former preparer, whom they’d already paid, put on the return that it was self-prepared, but “in reviewing the return, I found out that the preparer had made other mistakes.”