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Johnson compared the lowest and highest cost between drug plans for a list of 12 frequently - prescribed drugs. The list includes commonly prescribed brand name and specialty drugs, as well as two widely - used generics. The analysis found:.Rushed or pressured to sign papers. Is the salesman or dealer herding you into an office and telling you to sign now or lose your deal? That's a sure sign it's a deal worth missing..This is not a sustainable spending pattern for retired and disabled households. In recent years, Social Security recipients more typically reported that housing and medical expenses, not food, increased the fastest and were the two top cost concerns..Medicare is trying to nudge people towards using less expensive older drugs, as this story describes. Most of us jump at the chance to lower our drug costs whenever we can, but sometimes the alternative may not work as well. If this happens to you, I strongly suggest that you take the letter from Medicare and show it to your doctor. I'm willing to bet your doctor won't be pleased to see Medicare "prescribing" other drugs for his or her patients..A new Medicare Advantage plan is available in my area and the premiums are extremely low. It would save me a lot of money this year, so I'm thinking about dropping my Medigap and Part D plan to enroll in the new Medicare Advantage Plan during the fall Open Enrollment period. Can you explain the pros and cons of doing this?.What numbers are those?.One of the biggest traps to determining Medicare premiums based on income is how the government defines "high income." Social Security's rules can snag even modest-income people. This can happen when a home is sold or when converting retirement accounts. One-time capital gains can put seniors over the Medicare income thresholds. The higher Medicare premiums reduce monthly Social Security benefits for an entire year. Should your mother's income in 2010 return to more modest levels she won't have to pay the means test premium surcharges and her Social Security benefit should return to more normal levels next year..Many pharmacies are already administering vaccine doses that have been allocated to states. Under the new program, the federal government would ship doses directly to pharmacies. The new pharmacy initiative - which is aimed at broadening access to vaccines generally - is separate from an ongoing federal program to have Walgreens and CVS vaccinate residents of long-term care facilities..TSCL supports the "No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act" introduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher which would ban the use of earnings for jobs worked while illegal to be used to determine entitlement.