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A new bill was introduced in the Senate this week that would lower costs for Americans with diabetes and other chronic diseases who have high-deductible health plans. This legislation would not affect seniors who are covered by Medicare, but it could be very helpful for seniors who are under 65 and still working and who only have high-deductible health insurance. Authored by Sens. John Thune and Tom Carper, the bill, called the Chronic Disease Management Act, would lower health care costs by allowing high-deductible health plans to provide chronic disease prevention services - including insulin for diabetes - to plan enrollees before they reach their plan deductible..The Social Security Trust Fund is the single biggest government account to which the U.S. Treasury owes money, with obligations currently totaling about .8 trillion dollars. From the mid 1980s until 2010, the Social Security Trust Funds received more revenues than required to pay benefits. Under current law, when surplus revenues are received, the Treasury issues special bonds or I.O.Us to the Trust Funds and excess revenues are used for other government spending. The government is required by law to pay interest on those I.O.U bonds..This week, one new cosponsor Rep. Alcee Hastings signed on to Rep. Grace Meng's Notch Fairness Act. The bill now has ten cosponsors. If signed into law, it would provide modest compensation to victims of the Social Security Notch, or those who were born between 1917 and 192Just years before they were set to retire, these individuals learned that they would have significantly lower benefits than originally anticipated. The problem has grown and compounded over time, and TSCL believes that in order to make the program more equitable, some compensation for the injustice should be provided. We enthusiastically support Rep. Meng's Notch Fairness Act, and we were pleased to see one more lawmaker sign on as a cosponsor this week..Thousands of prescriptions are abandoned at pharmacies each year, often due to high prices. There are several things you can do to bring that cost down to a more manageable level..To find contact for your Members of Congress or to sign a petition, visit the ACTION CENTER of our website. To find information on key bills and issues, click HERE..It's about time. At the time of its passage, the Affordable Care Act, was labeled a "Medicare" tax and sold to the public that way. Now it is needed by the Medicare Part A Hospital Insurance Trust Fund. Part A is less than five years from insolvency and faces an estimated 5 billion funding gap over the next ten years. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that this tax will raise approximately .5 billion in revenue in 2021 alone..Congress still must fund the federal government for FY202They are supposed to do that by the end of September since the new fiscal year starts October But that hasn't been accomplished for the last several years and it is almost certain they won't do it again this year..But so far Members of Congress haven't received a paycheck. Eric Pianin, a journalist who covers the federal budget for The Fiscal Times, perhaps expressed it best as a "brilliant budget tactic that backfired." The House last March passed a new budget along party lines that would achieve a surplus within ten years, mainly through deep spending cuts and reforms to Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlements. Earlier this spring the Senate took up the challenge and passed a .6 trillion budget that has greatly different priorities for spending and taxes than the budget passed by the House. But neither Senate nor House negotiators have met in conference where the two chambers would negotiate differences and produce a compromise budget agreement..If adopted, H.R. 2787 would mandate the monthly formulation and publication of a consumer price index specifically for senior citizens for the purpose of establishing an accurate Social Security COLA for beneficiaries.