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Guest Column: Some good news for seniors in hard times

By Staff | Oct 27, 2009

By LORI PARHAM

These are tough times for seniors, especially those relying on Social Security for all or most of their income. According to 2008 AARP data, more than half of Florida’s three million Social Security beneficiaries rely on Social Security for half or more of their income, and for three of every 10

beneficiaries, Social Security is their only source of income.

Each year, as these Floridians look through their checkbooks to figure out how to pay for the rising costs we all face, they take small comfort in knowing

that Social Security provides a very modest cost of living adjustment to their benefits, or COLA for short.

Recently, many of these seniors find that their

COLA just barely outpaces the increase in health care costs they face through their Medicare Part B premiums.

So when it was announced this year that there would be no COLA for 2010, the alarm bells started to ring. The technical reason for this harsh news is no

comfort: the formula for determining the COLA overestimates the cost of some items like fuel and underestimates the impact of health care costs, leading to a determination that there is no inflation, despite what your grocery receipts may be telling you. Changing the formula would be helpful, but would likely be a long legislative and bureaucratic fight.

AARP has 40 million members, roughly half of whom are 65 or older, so we are acutely aware of this problem and have been working in Washington to find

immediate relief. While there is more to be done, we see encouraging signs of progress toward addressing this issue.

The first came last week, when the House passed the Medicare Premium Fairness Act (HR 3631) by an overwhelmingly bi-partisan 406-18 vote. All Florida House members can be thanked for supporting this bill, which would ensure that all Medicare beneficiaries be spared from an increase in Part B premiums in 2010 that would effectively shrink the Social Security checks of beneficiaries.

AARP encourages both of our Florida senators, Bill Nelson and George Lemieux, to follow suit as soon as possible. This is not a Republican or a Democratic

issue, but an issue of maintaining the dignity of all Floridians as they age.

AARP continues to work with Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to address the COLA issue, and several legislative proposals have been offered to provide a temporary fix that would provide beneficiaries with a cost of living adjustment of some sort, whether via a one-time payment or through another form of financial relief. We will continue to keep you posted on the progress

toward a solution.

Whatever the mechanism, AARP urges Congress to provide some relief to seniors whose costs continue to go up while their incomes remain stagnant. Please let your elected leaders know how important this issue is to you.

Lori Parham is AARP’s Florida state director.