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You receive a call that instructs you to press a number on your telephone keypad to learn how you can receive a Medicare-covered back brace. A live agent comes on the line and asks for your personal information, including your name and Medicare number to determine if you are eligible. Fraudulent suppliers and providers steal your information and use your Medicare number to submit phony claims to Medicare, even if you never order a thing..In our Sept. 26 Update, we told you about the new Drug Discount Card that President Trump had just announced would be available to some seniors. At that time, there were few details about the program because, as one White House official put it, the idea of a drug discount card was a "last-minute thing that is still being worked out.".On Tuesday, the Social Security Administration announced that beneficiaries will receive a 0.3 percent cost-of-living adjustment in January the lowest Social Security COLA ever paid. It will increase the average monthly benefit by just around five dollars, and it is likely to be offset completely by increased Medicare Part B premiums..The U.S. currently has 21 Social Security Totalization Agreements in effect with other nations. The agreements allow workers who split their careers working in two countries to avoid double taxation on the same work. In addition, workers are allowed to combine earnings from both countries in order to qualify for Social Security benefits under one or both systems. The agreement with Mexico presumably would have a very different impact, however, for a number of reasons, including the fact that no other totalization agreement is with a country where so many of its citizens are living and working in our country illegally..If signed into law, S. 141 would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which was created in 2010 by the Affordable Care Act..The resolution outlines more than trillion in spending cuts, calls for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and asks the committees of jurisdiction to come up with more than 0 billion in Medicare savings. If fully implemented, it would balance the budget within a decade..Charitable contributions, and the donation of goods, provided you have receipts for the donations..The 12-member bi-partisan panel failed to compromise after a nearly three-month effort. Ultimately, the committee couldn't come to terms with a common ideology of taxation and spending by the November 23rd deadline. "Despite our inability to bridge the committee's significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation's fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve," Senator Patty Murray and Representative Jeb Hensarling acknowledged in a joint written statement..This week, The Senior Citizens League was pleased to see support grow for four key bills in the House and Senate.