West Virginia AARP Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Joins 39 Other States Without Social Security Tax

Single filers who made over $50,000 per year, and joint filers who made over $100,000 per year used to have to pay taxes on social security income. However the legislature passed, and the governor signed, a bill that will eliminate the tax for all earners.

Gaylene Miller, state director for AARP says this will affect the more than 50,000 West Virginians who were paying Social Security tax.

“We heard loud and clear from our members that that’s double taxation,” Miller said. “They paid on that income when they were in the workforce. Social Security, thankfully, was never intended to fund the state government.”

The cut will take place over the course of three years, progressively cutting down how much Social Security earners pay each year. The law is backdated to cover all of 2024.

Some lawmakers raised questions around the bill asking if it was a worthy expenditure on the premise that retirees are not as beneficial to the state’s economy as working age individuals. And that this money could be used elsewhere to attract and retain working age West Virginians to the state. However, Miller said this tax cut will likely be recycled back into local economies.

“Those folks who get this meaningful tax relief will spend it in the community. So, it’s being reinvested,” Miller said. “It’s an attraction for retirees to come to West Virginia as well.”

The cut will put West Virginia in line with all of its border states of Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania that have no tax on Social Security.

Tomblin Signs Bills for Insurance Transparency, Caregiver Assistance

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin was joined by lawmakers and patient advocacy groups from across the state at the Capitol Thursday for the ceremonial signing of two healthcare related bills.

Senate Bill 366 creates the Patient Protection and Transparency Act which offers protections to people who sign up for insurance through a federal health care exchange website.

Tomblin also signed House Bill 2100 known as the Caregiver Advise, Record and Enable Act.

Backed by the AARP, the CARE Act allows a patient to name a layperson as their caregiver when he or she enters the hospital. That caregiver then has access to patient health and discharge information, as well as training about how to care for the patient when they return home.

“We believe it’s important because not only will the patient have a better outcome and recovery at home, but we could be actually saving money in Medicare and Medicaid by reducing costly hospital readmissions,” Gaylene Miller, state director of the West Virginia AARP, said of the bill Thursday

Miller estimated there are more than 300,000 family at home caregivers in the state which make up about $2.8 billion worth of uncompensated care.

Governor Tomblin Signs Opioid Antagonist Act

At the legislature today, the House made some major changes to the senate’s campaign finance reform bill. And two senators say the bill will not be approved by the Senate with those changes intact. A rally over the weekend brings six thousand citizens to the capitol to speak out against the Republican-led initiatives they say will hurt workers across the state. And we’ll talk about senior citizen’s issues with representatives of the AARP on The Legislature Today.

AARP Announces Priorities for Legislative Session

The West Virginia AARP announced Thursday a list of things they hope the legislature will consider.

State leaders with the West Virginia AARP were at the capital Wednesday alerting the 82^nd legislature of healthcare problems that elderly are dealing with throughout the state. The AARP is fighting to support the 42 million family caregivers in the United States who help make it possible for older Americans and loved ones to live independently. Gaylene Miller is the State Director AARP in West Virginia. She said one of the organization’s top priorities is the Care Act, which could help caregivers interact with hospitals. These caregivers may or may not be related to the person they’re caring for, such as a neighbor, family friend or church member.

“But they get on the record as the designated caregiver and that allows the hospital to talk to that individual,” Miller said. “Importantly the caregiver would notified of a discharge and probably most importantly that the hospital would be required to provide some hands on demonstrations and some education about the aftercare tasks.”

According to AARP there are more than 300-thousand family caregivers—one of every six West Virginias. These individuals provide an estimated 2.4-billion-dollars in unpaid care for loved ones across the state.