The Senior Citizens League believes Congress must address the loss of buying power by adopting the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act. If signed into law, H.R. 1251 would base the COLA on the more fair and adequate CPI-E. Currently, COLAs are based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners, and they fail to keep pace with the inflation experienced by older Americans since goods like gasoline and electronics are weighted more heavily than health care and housing costs.."Improving adult access to vaccines can save thousands of lives and billions of dollars. The health care costs associated with low adult vaccine rates are high - each year, the U.S. spends billion treating Medicare beneficiaries alone for four vaccine-preventable diseases. Cost-sharing and co-pays for vaccinations recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices were removed for all Affordable Care Act compliant private plans in 2010; however, Medicare beneficiaries were left out of this change and can still face high out-of-pocket costs for vaccinations.".The Notch Fairness Act, H.R. 615, introduced by Representative Ralph Hall, would allow Notch Babies their choice of a higher monthly benefit or a lump-sum of ,000 payable in four annual installments. The legislation would allow eligible survivors of Notch Babies, persons who receive Social Security benefits based on the account of a Notch Baby, to receive up to 100% of the benefit payable to the deceased..The CR will fund the government through this coming Friday, Dec. 18, at the same level as fy2020 funding. If they still can't reach an agreement it is likely they will pass another CR that will go to the end of the year. That would give them time to go home for Christmas and then return to Washington to continue trying to reach a final agreement..House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week that she is pushing to attach drug price cutting legislation to the major budget bill carrying most of President Biden's trillion economic agenda in the coming months..During the nation's recovery from the 2007- 2009 Great Recession, and Troubled Asset Relief Program bailouts, Social Security and Medicare became frequent targets of deficit cut negotiations. Deficit plans included proposals to reduce annual cost-of-living adjustments by tying it to the more slowly growing chained consumer price index. The Budget Control Act of 2011 led to automatic 2% annual Medicare cuts on payments to providers. "That cut affected all Medicare providers, including hospitals, doctors, nursing staff," Johnson observes. "These are very same providers that are now so dangerously strained by the coronavirus pandemic.".Compare the least expensive way to buy. - No matter how you buy it, fresh, frozen, or canned, most fruits and vegetables tend to be sold by the pound A more accurate price for comparison is the cost per serving. For example, part of the weight of canned goods is packing liquid and as a result most have fewer servings per pound than fresh or frozen counterparts..I recently learned that my ex-spouse passed away due to the coronavirus. He was older than I am, and had already started Social Security. He was getting about ,875 before we divorced. I'm remarried now, but my husband hasn't started benefits. He's only working part time. Would I possibly qualify for Social Security widower's benefits based on my ex-husband's Social Security?.The Social Security Fairness Act, if signed into law, would amend the Social Security Act by repealing the government pension offset and the windfall elimination provision. TSCL believes that these two provisions unfairly reduce the earned Social Security benefits of millions of teachers, firefighters, peace officers, and other state or local government employees each year. We were pleased to see support grow for the Social Security Fairness Act this week.
