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The White House budget released earlier this year proposes to establish an out-of-pocket limit to the Part D benefit by phasing down beneficiary co-insurance in the catastrophic coverage phase of the benefit from 5 percent to no-cost sharing over four years, beginning in 201While this is better than nothing, the proposals make other changes shifting significant costs to Part D plans which would likely be passed on to consumers in higher premium costs and higher drug costs for the sickest people who hit the pre-catastrophic Part D gap. One analyst has estimated those costs would average ,000. In addition, there is no proposal at all that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices..As originally introduced, the bill tied all income taxes paid on Social Security benefits to the Social Security Trust Fund, and none to the Medicare Trust Fund. Instead, the bill specified that revenues destined for the Medicare Trust Fund would come from general revenues, in an amount equal to those that the trust fund was otherwise estimated to receive from the taxation of Social Security benefits..Medicare drug plan finder at..According to the Congressional Research Service, for an age 65 retiree with average wages, a maximum benefit disparity of 10% would have arisen between the highest benefit under the old rules and the lowest benefit under the new rules if the 1977 assumptions had materialized. Under the economic conditions that actually arose, the disparity was 25%-two and one half times greater..Article I of the United States Bill of Rights guarantees citizens the right to petition the government for "redress" of grievances. Individuals build greater political clout when they join forces with other like-minded activists to press for change. Time is running out for Notch Babies. TSCL members and their families, friends, and supporters will not allow the Notch Issue to quietly die away, but will continue to press for compensating those born during the Notch period as long as they set that as their number one legislative goal..After more than a decade of failed attempts to repeal and replace the sustainable growth rate the flawed formula that sets payment rates for doctors who treat Medicare patients Congress has finally succeeded in passing legislation to do away with it once and for all. In April, lawmakers in both the House and the Senate adopted a bipartisan bill that will permanently repeal the SGR, provide doctors with modest 0.5 percent payment updates over the next five years, and incentivize payment models that reward the coordination of medical care..This is exactly the wrong approach. Social Security is about economics, but it is also about our values. It's about who we are as a people, and what kind of country we are determined to build. Every person who represents you in Washington should be talking about protecting and expanding Social Security not cutting it..Call Congress.Medicare costs often consume up to half of your Social Security benefit. In a recent TSCL survey, 48% of respondents said they spent 11% to 33% of their Social Security benefits on healthcare in 201Another 25% said they spent from 34% to 50% of their Social Security on healthcare.