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may tend to lower your tax bill later, by reducing the required minimum distribution amount that you must take in order to avoid tax penalties after age 70 ½. Large required minimum distributions could also trigger taxes on up to 85% of your Social Security benefits in addition to a surcharge on your Medicare Part B and Part D premiums..When You Can't Afford Your Prescription Drugs, Apply For "Extra Help"."Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, health care professionals will reportedly spend less time filling out paperwork and more time focusing on delivering the best care for patients," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius..Despite the proposed decrease in funding, many feel that the plan from Chairman Rogers is a positive sign. The cut is negligible when compared to last year's proposal for fiscal 2014, the House and Senate committees were more than billion apart in their Labor-HHS-Education funding plans. The minor cut for fiscal 2015 likely means that appropriators in the House are hoping to compromise with the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has not yet released a proposal for the contentious measure..If you currently have dental insurance, you may want to check with your plan to see what dental services are covered. If you do have some coverage now, consider getting necessary dental work before you start Medicare. You may also want to shop for Medicare Advantage health plan that covers routine dental services, but carefully first compare other costs and coverage for your specific health conditions and prescription needs..In counting out-of-pocket spending, Medicare does not include the cost of monthly Part D premiums or the cost of any drugs that aren't listed on your drug plan's formulary. And, even after hitting ,350, out-of-pocket spending would not end there, because Part D has no annual out-of-pocket maximum. The TrOOP cost is the amount you must spend before you qualify for the catastrophic stage of Part D coverage, when Medicare steps in and co-insurance goes down. But you still are required to pay a minimum of .60 for generic drugs or a 5% coinsurance for brand drugs..On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education approved a 6.8 billion fiscal 2015 spending bill by a voice vote. The bill provides funding to a wide range of health and education programs, and it also covers the administrative expenses of Social Security and Medicare. The Labor-HHS-Education bill is the largest domestic appropriations bill, accounting for nearly one-third of all non-defense discretionary spending..In late December of last year, the federal government reluctantly turned over to TSCL the first public copy of the controversial Totalization Agreement with Mexico after TSCL was forced to file two federal lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to the documents. The agreement has not yet been signed by the President or sent to Congress for final review.."For this group of Medicare beneficiaries, this will also be the largest Medicare Part B increase in five years after premiums remained relatively flat since 2013," says Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare Policy Analyst for The Senior Citizens League. The jump in premiums is due to a special provision of law known as "hold harmless," which protected millions of Social Security recipients from reductions to their Social Security benefits in 2016 and 2017, when then the annual - cost - of - living adjustments were zero and just 0.3 percent, respectively.