AARP Says Benefit Changes Could Harm New Yorkers

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John Rother, Senior Policy Director for AARP

  With the "fiscal cliff" looming, AARP is warning that changes being considered for Social Security and Medicare could harm older New Yorkers.

The clock is ticking closer to the end-of-year deadline to avert the fiscal cliff, which is a combination of the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and automatic, across-the-board spending cuts. Some economists say the combination could send the economy back into recession.

AARP says a move being considered by Congress to increase the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 would affect 331,713 New Yorkers.

The group says a proposal to change the way cost of living adjustments are calculated for Social Security could take roughly $7 billion out of the pockets of New York beneficiaries over the next decade.

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press