Fifty Plus Advocates

BOSTON — Republicans and Democrats in Massachusetts are faulting President Barack Obama for proposing changes that would trim Social Security and Medicare benefits. The changes, included in a federal budget plan released by the president Wednesday, would switch the way the government calculates annual cost-of-living adjustments for recipients of Social Security and other government benefit [...]

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WASHINGTON — Seeking an elusive middle ground, President Barack Obama is proposing a 2014 budget that embraces tax increases abhorred by Republicans as well as reductions, loathed by liberals, in the growth of Social Security and other benefit programs. The plan, if ever enacted, could touch almost all Americans. The rich would see tax increases, [...]

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WASHINGTON, March 16 — President Barack Obama’s widely publicized recent string of meetings with rank-and-file Republican and Democratic lawmakers earned him public praise from even some of his most implacable critics. But for all the warm talk, no breakthroughs were anticipated and none emerged to break the impasse between the White House and Congress over [...]

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By Garance Burke SAN FRANCISCO — Medicare paid billions in taxpayer dollars to nursing homes nationwide that were not meeting basic requirements to look after their residents, government investigators have found. The report, released Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general, said Medicare paid about $5.1 billion for patients to stay [...]

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By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
 WASHINGTON — They may not agree on much else, but there’s a change to Medicare that President Barack Obama and Republicans both support: Expand a little-known law so more retirees that the government considers well-off are required to pay higher monthly premiums. It’s on the short list in the budget talks, raising [...]

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By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar WASHINGTON — Internet sale price for a standard back brace: $99.99. What Medicare pays for the item: $900-plus. A federal report released Wednesday offers a look at how wasteful spending drives up health care costs as investigators found that Medicare paid $919 on average for back braces that cost suppliers an average [...]

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