Track This Bill – Extending the Dependent Care Credit
A bill introduced in the House of Representatives would extend the dependent care credit to include expenses related to caring for parents and grandparents who do not live with the taxpayer.
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The bill was introduced in response to the rising number of people providing financial assistance to a parent or grandparent. According to the bill, ÛÏthe proportion of adult children providing personal care or financial assistance to a parent has more than tripled during the past 15 years.Û
In order to be listed as a dependent, the adult must be physically or mentally incapable of caring for himself and be the taxpayerÛªs mother or father, or an ancestor of the taxpayerÛªs mother or father.åÊ If passed, the tax credit would apply to all taxable years beginning January 1, 2011.
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Read the full bill: Elder Care Tax Credit Act of 2012.
Musical Training Can Overcome Hearing Loss
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| Eline de Ruite, Getty Images |
A study published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging shows that lifelong musical training ÛÓ particularly when continued late in life ÛÓ can help overcome age-related hearing loss.
Researchers at Northwestern University’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory measured how the brains of young musicians, older musicians and non-musicians responded to auditory stimuli. They found that older musicians had a distinct neural advantage over young musicians and non-musicians.
Independent researchers say that these findings, in conjunction with earlier animal studies, support the idea that the brain can be trained to overcome, in part, some age-related hearing loss.
The results suggest that ÛÏintensive training even late in life could improve speech processing in older adults and, as a result, improve their ability to communicate in complex, noisy acoustic environments,Û Don Caspary, Ph.D., a researcher in the field of age-related hearing loss at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine said.
Source: McKnights
Bone Density Tests – Too Many Not a Good Thing
Frequent bone density tests for senior women may not be needed, according to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Medicare pays for a bone density test every two years. But the study followed nearly 5,000 women ages 67 and older for more than a decade. None had osteoporosis when they enrolled in the study, and only 10% of those with substantially low bone density developed osteoporosis within a year.
Investigators suggest that the bone-loss disease develops slowly enough that women who have normal tests at age 65 can wait up to 15 years before being tested again. Women with moderate osteopenia, a risk factor for osteoporosis, should be rescreened in five years, and women with advanced osteopenia should be rescreened in a year, the authors wrote.åÊ
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