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In March of this year, after nearly a year of debate in Congress, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. As the initial media coverage and analysis of the new law reached a fever pitch, there were many news reports on a certain provision of the law that relates to prescription drug coverage retirees receive through their former employers..My estimate is based on CPI data through March 2019 and projected through the third quarter of 2019, the quarter that the Social Security Administration will use to determine the COLA..A sixty-four billion dollar budget cut does nothing to prevent fraud to begin with, especially when investigators and stronger oversight through the judicial system during the determination process are critically needed. TSCL believes that funding should be appropriated for the Cooperative Disability Investigations Program. The CDI program continues to be one of the Social Security Administration's most successful initiatives to prevent fraud, returning an estimated for every spent in fighting fraud..Improving the disability program's integrity by prohibiting the use of medical evidence from health providers who have been convicted of a felony, when deciding whether an applicant qualifies for benefits. This would make it more difficult for criminals to game the system..Your earnings from work will reduce your benefits if you are under your full retirement age and the earnings are more than the annual limit. The age at which people become eligible for full retirement benefits has been gradually rising. The full retirement age for people born from 1943 through 1954 is 66..And it could be worse if inflation is lower and Medicare Part B premiums are higher. Due to a special provision of law known as the Social Security hold harmless provision, when the dollar amount of the Medicare Part B premium increase is greater than the dollar amount of an individual's COLA, the Medicare Part B premium is adjusted to prevent a reduction in Social Security benefits from December of the previous year. Those affected by hold harmless wind up with no growth in their net Social Security benefit after the deduction for Part B premiums. That leaves nothing extra left over to deal with other rising costs such as housing and drug costs..This week, following a two-day markup, the House Budget Committee advanced a fiscal 2019 budget resolution that would dramatically impact Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid if adopted. The "Budget for a Brighter American Future" includes trillion in spending cuts, and it would balance the budget in nine years..benefits, your initial benefit amount will be 25% higher at your full.Unless there is a breakthrough regarding a new coronavirus bill, the House is scheduled to return to business on Sept. 1That will leave 2 ½ weeks in September for it to pass the two remaining funding bills but that will probably depend on how negotiations for a new coronavirus bill as well as a CR go once they return.