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Benefits are based on lifetime earnings. To be qualified for retirement benefits, workers need about 10 years of earnings. The earnings are indexed to account for changes in average wages since the year the earnings were received. Then SSA calculates the average indexed monthly earnings using the 35 years of highest earnings. A formula is applied to this amount to arrive at the basic benefit..And there is this report from Vox News:.The Senior Citizens League's estimate is based on an expected Part B increase of .50 per month, from 4.00 in 2018 to 5.50 per month in 2019, as estimated by the Medicare Trustees in June of this year. "A Part B increase any more than .50 per month would mean that even more people at even higher benefit levels would potentially be affected by the Social Security 'hold-harmless' provision again in 2019," Johnson notes..On Wednesday, the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee met to discuss reform of the Medicare physician payment system with a panel of five experts. The hearing, entitled "Using Innovation to Reform Medicare Physician Payment," focused on ideas from the private sector..The age at which individuals become eligible for full, un-reduced Social Security benefits is rising. Your full retirement age is based on the year when you were born and, for people born in 1960 and later, the full retirement age is 6The earliest age at which you can claim a retirement benefit is 6However, claiming benefits prior to your full retirement age comes with expensive trade-offs. It's unlikely to be your best choice if your aim is to maximize your retirement income over the long haul..To learn more, see the Medicare Publication "Are You A Hospital Inpatient or Outpatient" Publication No.1143Call Medicare at..Despite the coronavirus emergency, The Senior Citizens League is continuing its fight for you to protect your Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits. We've had to make some adjustments in the way we carry on our work, but we have not, and will not stop our work on your behalf..The estimated depletion date for the Medicare Part A trust fund is 202At that time, program income will be sufficient to pay 90% of total scheduled benefits. The Part B trust fund is financed differently, with premiums and general revenue funding changing each year to reflect projected spending, so Part B is expected to be adequately financed "for the next 10 years and beyond.".Although the annual adjustment is provided to protect the buying power of Social Security payments, beneficiaries report a growing disparity between the amount of benefit boosts they receive and increasing costs. According to a recent national survey by TSCL, the majority of Social Security recipients said that their benefits rose by less than in 2014, yet their monthly expenses rose by more than A 1.7% increase would only boost average Social Security benefits by about in January.