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Action on Capitol Hill this week has been limited as Congress re-convenes on January 17th. Meanwhile, members of the payroll tax Congressional Conference Committee were named, while the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a plan for increased efficiency and savings..Before we get into the rules for your wife, let's double-check your situation. If your wife recently stopped working, you should check your enrollment in Medicare Part B right away in order to avoid a Part B late enrollment penalty..Age doesn't matter for contributions to Roth IRAs. Regardless of your age, if you have earned wages you can contribute to a Roth IRA. While the contributions to a Roth will not lower your income for tax purposes, the money you put in will grow tax deferred without any required minimum distributions. And distributions from a Roth won't subject your Social Security benefits to taxation..On Thursday, HELP Committee Members heard from the governors of five states, who offered their guidance on improving the individual market. Governor John Hickenlooper explained that states have long been the test labs of democratic experiments and they are in an exceptional position to propose unique solutions. He and others who testified at Thursday's hearing agreed that CSRs must continue to be funded and that lawmakers should consider creating an emergency stabilization fund to decrease the skyrocketing premiums many individuals are currently facing. Governor Charlie Baker summarized the spirit of the hearing when he said "health coverage is a shared commitment," and although the opinions of elected officials vary widely, they are dedicated to working to solutions together..The effect tends to be tempered by the fact that the federal poverty level itself is adjusted for inflation every year, using the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers. In most years the CPI-U grows slightly faster than the index used to adjust Social Security benefits, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. Thus, it tends to keep pace with the COLA. But in 2020, the CPI-U grew more slowly than the COLA, growing just 1% instead of the CPI-W's 1.3%. Thus, SNAP benefits and many other types of benefits were reduced or even eliminated this year for some beneficiaries..While seniors with Medicare aren't required to have an Obamacare health plan, they have worries too. Obamacare cut Medicare by more than 0 billion over ten years, and that's starting to impact seniors age 65 and older. In particular, the law cut reimbursements to Medicare Advantage plans by 6 billion..Medicare does not cover routine dental care that you normally receive for the health of your teeth. According to Medicare Interactive, a resource for answers to your Medicare questions maintained by the Medicare Rights Center, Medicare will not cover routine checkups, cleanings or fillings. In particular Medicare will not pay for dentures. Even if you have to have teeth extracted as preparation for a medical procedure, you are responsible for the cost of your dentures..If that's so why hasn't anybody done it yet? The options Congress has to address the debt are dwindling and the choices that are left are wrenching.."'The Senate's immediate role is clear: we need to support the federal, state, and local public health officials and healthcare professionals who are working overtime to blunt, delay, and mitigate the spread of the virus,' McConnell said. 'The American people deserve for their Congress to meet this subject head on.'"