NYS Alliance for Retired Americans Monday Alert November 9, 2020 Edition Election Results Mixed in New York State US House Majority for Democrats Narrows Democratic Majority in the Senate an Uphill Battle In New York State the Congressional races were a mixed bag in Congressional Districts 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 , 9 , 10, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 incumbents were successfully re-elected. In Congressional Districts 2, 15, 16 and 17 new representatives were elected but replaced Representatives of the same political party. In District 2 Andrew Garbarino (R) replaces long time Congressman Peter King, In District 15 Ritchie Torres (D) replaces Congressman Jose Serrano, in District 16 Jamaal Bowman (D) replaces Congressman Eliot Engel, and in District 17 Mondaire Jones (D) replaces Congresswoman Nita Lowey. In District 3 the race is very close with incumbent Congressman Thomas Suozzi (D) (45.76%) trails in his race with George Devolder-Santos (47.21%). In District 11 our friend and supporter Max Rose appears to have been defeated by Nicole Malliotakis and in District 22 former Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, who in her past Congressional service was unsupportive of our senior issues, defeated Anthony Brindisi. When all is said and done the New York State delegation has already lost two supporters of our issues and is in a tight race in another district. In the New York State legislature among the seats that are not too close to call the Senate will include 36 Democrats and 26 Republicans. In the NYS Assembly among the seats that are not too close to call the Assembly will be made up of 95 Democrats, 53 Republicans and 1 independent. As of Friday, Democrats and Republicans are deadlocked for Senate control with 48 seats each and four left to be called. Democrats won key victories in Colorado, where Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper beat incumbent Cory Gardner, and Arizona, where Mark Kelly defeated Republican incumbent Martha McSally. The two senate races in Georgia will likely both be advancing to a January 5 runoff. Democrat Raphael Warnock will face Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed last year to finish the term of Senator Johnny Isakson after he resigned for health reasons. Warnock and Loeffler both finished ahead of Republican Doug Collins this week to make the runoff. Democrat Jon Ossoff is expected to face incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue in the other Georgia Senate race, since neither candidate has so far secured the 50% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff for that seat. Democrats are set to keep their House majority but appear likely to lose seats in the 2020 election, according to NBC News projections. Democrats had won 212 seats and Republicans 194 as of Friday, with 29 races still undecided. Democrats are currently ahead in 9 of those 29. It appears Democrats will need to win the two Georgia races in January to have a 50-50 Democratic-Republican tie in the chamber and enable Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to cast any tie-breaking votes.” NYSARA Holds Fall Board of Directors Meeting On Wednesday November 4th the NYS Alliance for Retired Americans held their Zoom Fall Board of Directors meeting. At that meeting the Board paid a tribute to NYSARA founding person Nancy B. True of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters who recently passed away after a brief battle with cancer. NYSARA President Barry Kaufmann said "without Nancy the success and continuation of NYSARA especially in New York City would have been much more difficult. Nancy was a bastion of NYSARA and avid spokesperson for our organization. She will be missed.' Also, during the meeting the Board approved the 2021 NYSARA Budget that reflects the COVID pandemic. The strategies for our Federal and State issues for 2021as well as defining our New York State Legislative priorities. The board delineated safe nurse staffing, health insurance for all New Yorkers, issues that protect our caregivers, combatting age discrimination as well as fairness in funding of the NYS government. A discussion was then held about NYSARA's first two Zoom town halls for our members. The first town hall on the Census and answering questions of concern attracted about 100 people and the second town hall featuring NYS Department of the Aging Director Greg Olsen and a representative of the NYS Board of Elections had about 50 people attend. The Board discussed possible topics for upcoming town halls. Topics included Wellness, Connect the Dots Eldercare, Social Security, the Payroll tax and Medicare, Retiree Money Management, Analysis of the NYS and Federal Budgets by the Fiscal Policy Institute, Climate Change and Support for the problem of isolation during the holidays. If you would like to check in about one of these topics or to suggest other topics please contact NYSARA President Barry Kaufmann at [email protected]. President Barry Kaufmann also informed the Board that the election convention that was scheduled for the spring of 2020 and was postponed due to the COVID crisis will be held in late March or early April via a Zoom meeting. At that time we will be electing the leadership of NYSARA for the next two years. The last items of business were a discussion of the targets for expansion of our organization. We will pursuing NYSNA, the Operating Engineers and the IBEW to affiliate with us. We also will continue to pursue Regional chapters in Westchester and the Southern tier. Medicare Reminder In Medicare, the term improper billing refers to a provider inappropriately billing a beneficiary for Medicare cost-sharing. Cost-sharing can include deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments. Federal law prohibits Medicare providers from billing people enrolled in the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program for any Medicare cost-sharing. This means that if you have QMB, Medicare providers should not bill you for any Medicare-covered services you receive. More specifically, if you have QMB and are enrolled in Original Medicare, you should not be billed when receiving a Medicare-covered service from either: • A participating provider (one who takes assignment) • A non-participating provider If you have QMB and are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan, you should not be billed when receiving a plan-covered service from: • In-network providers, as long as you meet your plan’s coverage rules, such as getting prior authorization to see certain specialists To protect yourself from improper billing, be aware that: • Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage providers who do not accept Medicaid must still comply with improper billing protections and cannot bill you • You keep your improper billing protections even when receiving care from Medicare providers in other states (Note: You can be billed if you are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan and see an out-of-network provider, or if you have Original Medicare and see an opt-out provider) • You cannot choose to waive these protections and pay Medicare- cost sharing, and a provider cannot ask you to do this Remember that if you have QMB, the Medicare providers you see must accept Medicare payment and any QMB payment as the full payment for any Medicare-covered services you received. Providers who violate improper billing protections may be subject to penalties. If you are having issues with a provider who continually attempts to bill you, or if you have unpaid cost-sharing bills that have been sent to collection agencies, call 1- 800-MEDICARE or contact your Medicare Advantage Plan. Note: Some states may impose Medicaid copays for certain Medicare- covered services. Medicare and Medicaid should pay the majority of the cost, leaving you a nominal copay. Contact your local Medicaid office to learn more about Medicaid copays in your state. News Organizations Call a Historic Election win for Seniors to Vice President Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris Election officials and news networks have declared Vice President Biden has prevailed in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania and has now garnered 273 Electoral College votes making him the President elect of the United States. Biden already flipped Michigan and Wisconsin, which voted for Trump in 2016, earlier in the week and is ahead in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. Biden is also winning the popular vote by a margin of more than 4.1 million votes nationwide after breaking Barack Obama's record for most votes ever cast for a U.S. presidential candidate. Biden has secured nearly 74 million votes and is currently leading Trump by 2.8 percentage points. "Vice President Biden and Senator Kamala Harris put the issues older Americans care about at the center of their campaign,” said Alliance Executive Director Richard Fiesta. “We look forward to working with the Biden-Harris administration to strengthen and expand Social Security and Medicare, defend our pensions, lower prescription drug prices and end the pandemic.” “We would like to thank all the Alliance members who exercised their right to vote in record numbers despite the pandemic,” said Robert Roach, Jr., President of the Alliance. “In addition to voting, you generously volunteered your time, phone banked, texted thousands of your fellow seniors and pioneered a new way of campaigning in the face of the coronavirus.” Retirees Help Bring Biden Across the Finish Line As expected, seniors played a critical role in the election. Exit polls show that Trump’s edge with voters over the age of 65 shrunk to 3 points this time around, down from seven four years ago. Biden pulled ahead of Trump by one point with voters between the ages of 45 and 64, a group Trump won by eight percentage points back in 2016. It appears that in several battleground states Biden won a majority of votes cast by people over the age of 65.