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Dear David,
Happy New Year, members. Thank you for reading our January 2017 MEA-Retired Tribune Newsletter, edited by President Judy Foster. Find more information at our website, www.mea-retired.org, and on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/mearetired. The MEA-Retired Leadership Team
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January 2017 MEA-Retired Tribune Newsletter
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Teachers Unions Mount Campaign against Betsy DeVos, Trump's Education PickWashington Post, Jan. 9, 2017
National teachers unions are mounting an aggressive campaign against Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for education secretary, arguing that she is an ideological extremist with a record of undermining the public schools her department would oversee.
The National Education Association, the largest labor union in the nation, is mobilizing teachers to call and email their senators, urging a vote against DeVos's confirmation. The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, is scheduled to deliver a speech Monday in which she plans to say that DeVos endangers a new and fragile bipartisan consensus on the federal government's role in education.
"Betsy DeVos is not qualified, and even more than unqualified, Betsy DeVos is an actual danger to students - especially our most vulnerable students," said NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia. "She has made a career trying to destroy neighborhood public schools, the very cornerstone of what's made our nation so strong." CLICK HERE to read more of the article.
TAKE ACTION:
Stop Betsy DeVos from becoming Secretary of Education
The selection of Betsy DeVos to serve as U.S. Secretary of Education is an affront to students and education professionals in Michigan. Our two U.S. Senators, Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, are great friends of public education who can help lead the charge against DeVos' confirmation -- but they need your help! Take a moment today to share your story with Senators Stabenow and Peters about how the DeVos agenda has harmed your students and school. Urge the Senators to do everything they can as friends of public education to stop Betsy DeVos from being confirmed as the U.S. Secretary of Education. Read more about it and take action - it's easy:
On January 17th #WearRedForPublicEd
On Tuesday, Jan. 17, the U.S. Senate will hold a confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos, President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education. DeVos and her wealthy, right-wing family are no strangers to Michigan educators and students, who have suffered for years under policies the DeVoses have pushed as mega-donors to the Republican Party.
That's why MEA and AFT Michigan are asking all Michigan school employees and supporters to join together on Tuesday, Jan. 17th and Wear Red for Public Ed. Trump and DeVos can only succeed in undermining and privatizing public education if we let them. Wearing red on Tuesday along with your colleagues will show that we remain united by our common belief in great public schools for all of our students. CLICK HERE to read more at mea.org. 
Call the President on January 23rd!
"Keep your promises on Social Security & Medicare!"
Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security is under attack. That's why on Monday, January 23rd we will be asking you to make another call - this time to the new President. We need to tell Donald Trump to stand up to Congress and keep his campaign promise to not cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Use the Alliance for Retired American link to easily contact the President.
ALLIANCE FOR RETIRED AMERICANS WATCHDOGS THE MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY PROGRAMS
On November 10, 2016, House Speaker Paul Ryan told Fox News that he would push legislation in early 2017 that would end Medicare's guaranteed health care benefits. For years Ryan has worked to replace Medicare with a voucher or coupon for seniors to use to purchase their health insurance. This threat to our earned health care benefits became even more serious when President-elect Donald Trump nominated Rep. Tom Price to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Like Ryan, Price has vowed to privatize, cut and change Medicare to a voucher program.
Speaker Ryan said he would bury the Medicare changes in the legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.This strategy is an effort to confuse and distract Americans who overwhelmingly support and depend on Medicare and wish to see it strengthened, not destroyed. This is not the first time Speaker Ryan has tried to dismantle Medicare and his plans are available on his website. They include:
Ending Medicare's Guaranteed Benefits
- Raise the Medicare Eligibility Age from 65 to 67: This would deny nearly 5 million seniors insurance starting in 2020. By 65, most Americans have at least one chronic medical condition that would make the purchase of private insurance prohibitively expensive and difficult to obtain.
- Vouchers or Coupon-care: Instead of a Medicare card which provides access to health care, seniors would receive a limited voucher or coupon. These coupons would contribute toward the purchasing of a traditional Medicare plan or a private insurance policy and would require beneficiaries to pay significantly more out-of-pocket.
- MedigapPlanWill Cover Less: Today Medigap insurance plans are allowed to cover most of a beneficiary's co-payments. The Ryan Coupon-Care Voucher Plan would change the rules and Medigap policies would no longer be able to cover deductibles. Medigap plans would also be limited in how much of the difference between the deductible and the out of pocket cap could be covered.
- Costs Shifted to Seniors: Speaker Ryan's Coupon-Care Voucher Plan would double hospital stay copayments and would substantially increase all deductibles.
Gutting Medicaid
Medicaid pays the long-term care costs for millions of seniors and provides health care services to people with disabilities and low-income Americans.
Ryan and Price's vision includes drastic changes to states' Medicaid programs as well as 25% cuts in funding. States would be forced to cut benefits to their most vulnerable people or increase state taxes to make up the difference.
How to Contact Your Elected Officials
Learn how to get in touch with your federal, state, and local elected leaders.
Contact Federal Elected Officials
Contact State Elected Officials
Contact Local Elected Officials
- U.S. Mayors - Locate mayors by name, city, or population size.
- County Executives - A county executive is the head of the executive branch of government in a county. The county executive may be an elected or an appointed position.
Other Local Government Officials - This directory can help you find contact information for your city, county, and town officials in your state
Calendar
January 11, 2017 - MEA-Retired Board Meeting February 13-24, 2017 - Electronic voting for MEA-Retired delegates to the MEA Representative Assembly and delegates to the NEA-retired annual Meeting and NEA Representative Assembly February 23, 2017 - Deadline for MEA scholarship applications March 13-17, 2017 - MEA scholarship reading April 4, 2017 - MEA-Retired Annual Meetin g
What's the Medicare premium in 2017?
by Diane Archer
The monthly Medicare premium in 2017 technically will be $134.00, up from $104.90 - 10 percent from this year, for people with incomes of $85,000 or less. It's a big increase, but half as much as the Trustees suggested it might be.
In late June, in the Medicare Trustees' annual report to Congress on Medicare's financial state, the Trustees projected as much as a 20 percent increase in Medicare premiums for some people because of rapidly rising health care costs. However, about 70 percent of people with Medicare are seeing a premium increase of $4.00 a month from last year's premium of $105. That's because of a "hold harmless" provision that protects most people with Medicare from paying more in Medicare premiums than the increase in their Social Security monthly benefits.
About three in ten people with incomes of $85,000 or less will pay the full $134.00 monthly premium. They include people not receiving Social Security benefits, people enrolling in Part B for the first time in 2016 and people with Medicare and Medicaid, whose state Medicaid agencies will pay the higher premium.
The Part B premium is a lot more for people with incomes over $85,000. People whose modified adjusted gross income from two years ago as reported on their federal tax return will pay:
- $187.50 a month, if their income is above $85,000 and no more than $107,000
- $267.90 a month, if their income is above $107,000 and no more than $160,000
- $348.30 a month, if their income is above $160,000 and no more than $214,000
- $428.60 a month, if their income is above $214,000
To arrive at the premium amount for married people filing a joint tax return, double the income.
The Part B annual deductible is $183.00, a $17 increase from 2016.
People with incomes up to 135 percent of the federal poverty level, ($1,357 in monthly income for an individual and $1,823 for a couple in 2016) are eligible for help paying their premiums through Medicaid or a Medicare Savings Program.
For more than four decades, the Medicare Part B premium (medical insurance) was the same for everyone regardless of income, geography or health status, a quarter of the cost of Part B services. (Medicare Part A, hospital insurance, is premium-free if you have contributed into Social Security for at least 40 quarters.) In 2007, wealthier people with Medicare began paying higher premiums. And, today, individuals earning more than $85,000 a year and couples earning more than $170,000-about 6 percent of the Medicare population-pay higher premiums than everyone else with Medicare.
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.
~Clarence Darrow~
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Thank you for your continued support of MEA-Retired!
from MEA-Retired leadership
Pres. Judy Foster, VP Kay Walker, Sec/Treas. Dan Rudd, & MEA's Lisa Andros
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