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To try to kill the novel coronavirus, some Americans are unsafely using disinfectants and cleaners, including washing food with bleach, using the products on bare skin, and inhaling and ingesting them, federal health officials reported Friday..In 2010, 2011, and 2016 there was no COLA payable at all and, in 2017, the COLA was just 0.03 percent. Likewise, in 2018, the COLA was 2 percent, but rising Part B premiums consumed the entire increase for roughly half of all beneficiaries..The pharmacy benefit management company Express Scripts/Medco has one of the most comprehensive lists of the estimated dates in which brand drugs patents are ending. To learn more about your drug plan options, visit and look on the homepage for the link to "Compare health and drug plans.".TSCL understands that the budget deficit is growing out of hand. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the massive tax reform and budget bills recently adopted by Congress will cost the federal government an estimated .7 trillion over the next ten years. However, TSCL firmly believes that a constitutional balanced budget amendment, that would disproportionately impact seniors and limit the ability of Congress to respond to economic downturns, is not the solution to the problem..The program is projected to have enough tax income to pay about 23% less than currently scheduled, according to the Congressional Research Service. But economists warn that without changes to reduce the deficit, the Social Security Trust Fund will get into trouble long before the program is scheduled to become insolvent. Indeed, beneficiaries got a glimpse of what may lay ahead during last summer's battle over the debt limit. According to estimates from the Bi-partisan Policy Center, the federal government did not have sufficient revenues to cover Social Security benefits last August. Congress came within hours of a default on what it owed to the Trust Fund, and thus falling short on money needed to pay benefits before enacting legislation..A key unresolved issue is whether undocumented immigrants, who illegally worked using invalid or fake Social Security numbers, would be able to claim work credits towards benefits for those earnings. Work authorization, or "green cards," not citizenship, is the key requirement for noncitizens to become entitled to Social Security benefits and Medicare when other program qualifications are met. According to the Congressional Budget Office, even "limited" immigration changes that provide only permission to work in this country, or temporary work authorization, could potentially add millions of new claims in the future. Under current law Social Security benefits are based on all earnings, including earnings from jobs worked without authorization under invalid and fraudulent documents..TSCL will continue to keep a close eye on the evolving immigration negotiations, and we remain hopeful that in the very near future, lawmakers will consider loophole-closing legislation that would prevent Social Security credits from being earned by work done illegally. For updates on the discussions, visit the Legislative News section of our website..Social Security is one of the foundations of our nation and it is based on the principle that if you work hard and play by the rules you will have the stability and security of guaranteed income in your older years. For 75 years, Social Security has been a critical safety net for our nation's seniors and it should be preserved for generations to come. For these reasons, I will keep fighting to provide an accurate measure of inflation for our senior citizens and to strengthen the program..First, the Social Security 2100 Act gained one new cosponsor in Representative Diana DeGette, bringing the cosponsor total to 17If signed into law, H.R. 1902 would strengthen Social Security benefits by make cost-of-living adjustments more adequate, increasing monthly benefits by 2%, creating a new Special Minimum Benefit equal to 125% of the poverty line, providing a tax cut to Social Security beneficiaries, applying the payroll tax to annual income over 0,000, and gradually increasing the payroll tax rate by 0.25%.