Congress is about to go on its annual holiday vacation. Before our Senators and Representatives are allowed to take a break, they must finish up some work that they have not yet been able to reach agreements about. There will be some changes to certain types of public insurance programs.
Right now, the Senate is Democratic-led, and the House of Representatives is controlled by Republicans. Most of the time, these two political parties disagree with each other about, well, pretty much everything. There is a limited amount of time left for Congress to come to a decision about several important issues. This year, some of those topics include unemployment insurance benefits and Medicare.
Federal unemployment insurance programs are about to expire at the end of December of 2011. If nothing is done to prevent that from happening, or to extend the programs, then it will mean that millions of Americans who are relying on those benefits are going to end up in dire situations.
It has been suggested that both Democrats and Republicans are expected to renew those benefits, but, doing so will depend upon whether or not they are able to extend a payroll tax rate. That, too, is about to expire on December 31, 2011.
If the payroll tax rate is not extended, then American families are about to see their taxes increase by around $1,000 a year. At the same time, if the payroll tax rate is not renewed, then there is potential that the unemployment benefits extension will not be renewed, either.
Other changes to unemployment insurance benefits include allowing states to do drug testing on people who apply for unemployment benefits. Those who do no pass the drug test will not be eligible to receive benefits. People who are eligible for unemployment benefits will be required to search for work, to participate in re-employment services, and to get their GED’s.
The biggest affect of this piece of legislation, if passed, is that it will greatly reduce the amount of time that a person can receive unemployment benefits. Right now, in states where the unemployment rate is really high, people can receive benefits for up to 99 weeks. Congress could be about to cut that down to 59 weeks.
Another December 31, 2011 deadline concerns Medicare. Congress has until that date to decide if they want to prevent a 27% pay cut for Medicare reimbursements to doctors. No one wants this to happen, in part, because it will destabilize health care for the 47 million seniors and disabled people who use Medicare.
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