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The income thresholds that subject up to 50 percent of Social Security benefits to tax start at provisional incomes of ,000 and ,000. A second tier taxes up to 85% of benefits when individual provisional income exceeds ,000, and joint exceeds ,000. If the thresholds were adjusted to today's dollars the ,000 threshold would be about ,107 and the ,000 would be about ,097 according an analysis for TSCL..The low COLA announcement from the trustees comes just weeks after TSCL revealed the findings of its 2016 Survey of Senior Costs. The annual survey examined the cost increases of thirty-eight key items between 2000 and 2016, and it found that Social Security benefits have lost 23 percent of their purchasing power since 2000. During that sixteen-year period, the COLA rose by 36.3 percentage points, while typical senior expenses like housing, Medicare premiums, and prescription drugs jumped 75.3 percent. The findings of the survey are a clear sign that the COLA is growing too slowly, and that it's time to switch to a more accurate measure of inflation like the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers..Between July 2013 and July 2014, the prices of more than 1,200 generic drugs increased an average of 448%. What do you believe should be done to manage the extreme cost increases of prescription drugs?.Letter to Marilyn Tavenner, Acting Administrator, CMS, from Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, July 11, 201Testimony of Robert A. Berenson, M.D., Institute Fellow, the Urban Institute, U.S. Special Committee on Aging, July 18, 2012..Although importing prescription drugs from Canada is illegal, a substantial portion of consumers in the U.S. already purchase lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and other countries. A random sample survey of American adults in 2016 found that 8% of respondents said they or someone in their household had imported a drug at some point, which translates to about 19 million individuals..Totalization with Mexico is highly controversial because of the millions of Mexicans who have illegally worked in the United States without authorization. The agreement raises concerns that millions of such workers and their dependents would become newly eligible for Social Security benefits worsening the long-term solvency of the program. In addition, substantial new costs could trigger benefit cuts and higher taxes for both retirees and workers..The CMS announced new streamlined payment mechanisms for healthcare provider transactions this week. Doctors, hospitals, health plans, and states will all see reduced administrative costs under CMS' larger "administrative simplification" initiative..Leaders in Congress seem optimistic that they will reach a deal in the coming days. In a brief with the Republican Conference on Thursday morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan said, "I believe we will successfully complete the negotiations. We're not going to rush it. We're going to get it right.".TSCL will keep a close eye on the fiscal 2016 budget resolution as it moves through the Senate in the coming days, and we will continue to voice our concerns about cuts to the Medicare program that would result in higher costs for beneficiaries. For updates on its movement, visit our new Facebook page.