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The amount of money that the federal government owes to its creditors - including the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds - is now estimated to be as big as the entire U.S. economy. Economists warn that the situation can't continue without causing more economic crisis..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.".To learn more about how work affects your benefits, call the Social Security Administration toll free at and ask for How Work Affects Your Benefits.It's not perfect - we still have a year to go before implementation starts. However, starting in 2022, consumers will no longer receive surprise or "balance bills" when they are unknowingly treated by out-of-network providers. Patients will pay only the deductible and copayment amounts they ordinarily would under the in-network terms of their insurance plans. Medical providers will not be allowed to hold patients responsible for difference between the amount they get and the higher fees they would like to charge. Instead providers will have to work that out with insurers..Then last week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it will make sure that a COVID-19 vaccine will be made available to all seniors at no cost once a vaccine is approved..Here are tips to help you maintain your oral health without depleting your budget:.TSCL advocates for legislation that makes affordability for Medicare beneficiaries a priority. Medicare healthcare costs are the fastest growing cost that retired households face, and beneficiaries often shoulder a heavy financial burden. "Cutting Medicare benefits, while shifting more costs to beneficiaries, would be the wrong way to strengthen program financing" says Johnson..Currently the program pays out more in benefits than it receives in cash revenues. The interest on money owed to the Social Security Trust Funds, however, is helping to fund the benefits of today's retirees. But because the government must borrow the amount of money needed to repay funds borrowed from Social Security in the past, that drives up federal spending. Some Members of Congress are saying that benefits must be reduced, or that higher revenues are needed, to reduce the deficit..This, of course, keeps the costs of those drugs much higher than if a generic version were available.