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"Using that criterion, the Social Security reform trigger has already been pulled," Johnson notes. In their latest report, the Social Security Trustees say the combined retirement, survivors, and disability Trust Funds will exceed total income by increasing amounts starting in 2022 and will be depleted in 2034, well within the 75-year period called for in the budget resolution..If you have limited income and savings, there are three Medicare Savings Programs that help pay Medicare costs. If you qualify, your Medicare Part B premium will no longer be deducted from your monthly Social Security check. Over the rest of the year, that could be worth an extra 4.60 per month in your Social Security check, and more than ,300 in higher Social Security income through the end of the year. If you qualify, you will automatically get Extra Help, the Medicare program that helps with Part D prescription drug costs..Senator Mitt Romney recently led a bipartisan Senate group in introducing legislation aimed at fixing Social Security and Medicare's funding shortfalls. If nothing changes, the programs' trust funds are expected to become insolvent in 15 years. If that should occur, benefits would be reduced by about 22 percent in order to match the amount of payroll taxes coming in..In normal political times neither party would allow Medicare to be cut. But because of our current highly partisan times, it would require ten Republicans to join with Democrats to stop the cuts to Medicare with new legislation if reconciliation were used..The piece of the law under discussion relates to the way the government subsidizes companies that provide prescription drug coverage to retirees. When Congress created Medicare Part D, it also created an incentive for employers to continue providing prescription drug coverage to their retirees. Under current law, the government subsidizes 28% of the costs that employers incur from providing prescription drug coverage to retirees who are at least 65 and Medicare eligible. The companies that receive the subsidy are then allowed to deduct 100% of the costs of providing coverage to their retirees from their taxes - this deduction also includes the 28% subsidy that the government provides. The new healthcare law keeps the 28% subsidy intact but starting in 2013 it removes the ability of companies in computing their taxes to deduct the subsidy they receive from the government..A newly approved drug to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease is drawing criticism for it's ,000 price tag, especially given its lack of proven effectiveness. Aduhelm stirred controversy when the Food and Drug Administration's own expert advisory panel was nearly unanimous in opposing the drug's approval due to mixed results in studies of effectiveness..In today's environment, working together - whether that's across the aisle, across the country, or across generations - is the only way to keep our communities safe. That spirit and attitude is what America is all about, in the greatest country in the world, and that's thanks, in no small part, to the many accomplishments of our seniors..President Trump pledged that he would protect Social Security and Medicare when he ran for president in 201He has repeated that pledge several times since. But to advocate for a payroll tax cut that would bring both programs much closer to insolvency is not in keeping with his pledge..Only last year the Comptroller General of the United States, David Walker, warned Congress about this very thing saying, "Doing nothing, means that we are going to head to a precipitous decline in benefits. Remember the Notch Baby problem? This would be a Notch Baby problem magnified multiple times and it should not be allowed to happen."