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Medicare Part B premiums were found to be the fastest growing cost for seniors, increasing by 195 percent over the eighteen-year period. Average out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs followed closely behind, increasing by 188 percent. Meanwhile, between 2000 and 2018 the COLA increased Social Security benefits by only 46 percent..Medicare considers observation care as outpatient services, even though patients may stay in the hospital for several days. Outpatient care is covered under Medicare Part B not under Part A, which normally covers hospital care. Patients can have co-payments for doctor's fees, and every hospital service. That includes charges for any routine drugs your mother may take for chronic conditions like high cholesterol..Compare plans: Once you have entered all the information you will get your results. The results are available for both 2012 and 2013, but check and see which you are looking at. You first should compare how your current coverage is changing for 201You will also be surprised by what a difference a year makes in your lowest cost plan from 2012 to 201When making comparisons, check all the details. The results page allows you to compare up to three plans side by side. This is enormously helpful when juggling so many plans and details. Check the boxes of three you would like to compare. When comparing health plans, for example, you will see links to health plan benefits, drug costs and coverage, and plan ratings. Click each and print out results..TSCL is hopeful that lawmakers will find a solution before the end of this month, since a government shutdown could negatively impact Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries. We will continue to keep an eye on the evolving negotiations, and we will post updates here in the Legislative News section of our website.." The new Obama Administration policy is opening Social Security to as many as 1.2 million non-citizens who won't even have legal status, " Hyland says. This is occurring at the same time Congress and the President are debating major reforms that would cut the Social Security and Medicare benefits of U.S. senior citizens who paid into the system the legal way," he adds. TSCL supports the "No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act", introduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher, which would ban the use of earnings for jobs worked while illegal to be used to determine entitlement..To learn more about deducting medical expenses, see IRS publication 502, which can be downloaded at..Reduces the costs of your drugs.."People who have been receiving benefits for 12 years or longer have experienced an unprecedented series of extremely low cost-of-living adjustments," says Mary Johnson, a Social Security policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League. What's more those inflation adjustments do not account for rapidly rising Medicare Part B premiums that are increasing several times faster than the COLA. The situation is causing those with the lower Social Security benefits to see little growth in their net Social Security income after deduction of the Part B premium..For example, if the price of gasoline soars do people spend more on gas for their autos, or make fewer trips? Because Social Security recipients are living on fixed income, they don't always have the leeway to spend more, meaning larger numbers of seniors might drive less. Younger consumers on a budget and people who are out of work, may be in the same boat. And if a lot of consumers are in the same fix, and wind up driving less, this measure is likely to show that inflation didn't increase much, even though the price of gas at the pump is stratospheric. That would mean your COLA wouldn't grow either, even though cost inflation may be soaring.