Nearly two-thirds say they've seen no increase in take-home pay from GOP tax cuts: Gallup Almost two-thirds of Americans polled say they haven't seen an increase in their take-home pay as a result of last year's Republican tax-reform bill, according to a new survey. A Gallup poll published Wednesday found that 64 percent of respondents said they haven't seen a raise in their take-home pay as a result of reduced federal income taxes. That finding is identical to results in Gallup's February/March poll taken shortly after the tax changes went into effect.
The poll also found that a slim majority of Americans polled - 51 percent - say the law hasn't helped their family's financial situation. Meanwhile, 26 percent of respondents said the law has helped a "little" and 12 percent said it has helped "a lot." As this fall's midterm elections near, more Americans disapprove of the tax overhaul than approve of it, per the Gallup poll. The poll found that 46 percent of respondents
disapproved of the GOP tax cuts, while 39 percent approved of them. Those approval ratings are unchanged from the previous Gallup poll about seven months ago. The poll before that, taken in January, found that 55 percent of respondents disapproved of the tax cuts and 33 percent approved. Americans' views of the tax cuts are divided by party lines, with 8 percent of Democrats approving and 76 percent of
Republicans approving, according to the poll. The poll's results were based on telephone interviews conducted Sept. 24-30 with a random sample of 1,462 adults. The poll's margin of error is 3 percentage points. Proponents of the tax bill have previously argued that polls could be misleading if they include adults who are unemployed or self-employed and thus wouldn't be impacted by withholding changes.
Prescriptions for Millions of Opioid Pills Lead to Charges Against 5 Doctors It was not hard to tell when the doctor was in at the Staten Island office of Carl Anderson. Noisy crowds of people, some with visible signs of drug addiction, stood in long lines at all hours of the night, seeking prescriptions for oxycodone pills, the authorities said Thursday. Sometimes, the noise outside Dr. Anderson’s office got so loud that it prompted neighbors to call the police, and more than once ambulances were called to treat
pill-seeking patients, a series of new indictments show. Several patients, including two of his employees, overdosed and died, the authorities said. Dr. Anderson, 57, was one of five doctors charged on Thursday with taking millions of dollars in return for prescribing oxycodone pills to purported patients with no legitimate medical need for them, according to the
indictments and a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday in federal court in Manhattan. Another doctor, Dante A. Cubangbang, 50, who helped run a medical clinic in Queens, and a nurse practitioner prescribed 3.3 million pills that were paid for by Medicare and Medicaid over a three-year period — making him the highest prescriber in the state, one indictment says.
“Instead of caring for their patients, these doctors were drug dealers in white coats,” said Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a news conference on Thursday. “These are people who’ve taken an oath to help their patients,” Mr. Berman said. “They should be on the first line of defense to combat this type of opioid abuse and instead they’re part of the problem.”….Read
Medicare Advantage Riding High As New Insurers Flock To Sell To Seniors Health care Medicare Advantage has according to experts widely doubled to more than 20 million a report out expected the enrollees, growing from a Monday Affordable Care quarter of Medicare from the Act to hobble Medicare beneficiaries to more than a Kaiser Advantage, the governmentFamily third. funded private health plans that “The Affordable Care Act did Foundation. millions of seniors have chosen not kill Medicare Advantage, (KHN is an as an alternative to original and the program looks poised to editorially Medicare. continue to grow quite rapidly,” independent To pay for expanding coverage said Bill Frack, managing part of the to the uninsured, the 2010 law director with L.E.K. Consulting, foundation.) cut billions of dollars in federal which advises health companies. Overall, payments to the plans. And as beneficiaries get set to Medicare Government budget analysts shop for plans during open beneficiaries predicted that would lead to a enrollment — which runs from can choose sharp drop in enrollment as Monday through Dec. 7 — they from about 3,700 plans for 2019, nearly 23 million people in 2019, insurers reduced benefits, exited will find a greater choice of or 600 more than this year, a 12 percent increase. Enrollees states or left the business insurers. according to the federal shopping for new plans this fall altogether. Fourteen new companies have government’s Centers for will likely find lower or no But the dire projections proved begun selling Medicare Medicare & Medicaid Services. premiums and improved wrong. Advantage plans for 2019, CMS expects Medicare benefits, CMS officials Since 2010, enrollment in several more than a typical year, Advantage enrollment to jump to say….Read More Rhode Island Alliance for Retired Americans, Inc. • 94 Cleveland Street • North Providence, RI • 02904-3525 • 401-480-8381 riarajap@hotmail.com • http://www.facebook.com/groups/354516807278/