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Plan to compare your drug plan options during the fall Open Enrollment Period that starts October 15th and runs through December 7th. Chances are you will find a much lower-costing plan that will save you a bundle in 2014 if you switch plans..House Adjourns for Recess.More Americans are spending more years in retirement, but have little or no retirement savings. Fewer employers are offering retirement plans and participation from workers is low among those who do. According to a study by the Schwartz Center for Economic Analysis at the New School, the median net worth among households near retirement show that only about a quarter can expect an adequate cash income stream from their retirement savings.."It's about time," states Johnson. At the time of passage of the Affordable Care Act, this tax was widely referred to as a "Medicare" tax in the media, by tax and investment professionals, and, many lawmakers sold it to the public that way. "Now those revenues are needed by the Medicare Part A Hospital Insurance Trust Fund," says Johnson. Part A is three years from insolvency and faces an estimated funding gap of more than 5 billion over the next ten years..Last year, more than one-fourth of participants in TSCL's Senior Survey reported that they had received a "surprise" medical bill in the past 12 months. While surprise medical bills can refer to any number of situations, including a sudden cost increase for prescriptions, recent legislation passed in December of 2020 addresses a certain type. Specifically, medical bills that a patient unexpectedly receives when treated by an out-of-network provider at an in-network facility..Uncertain: 17%.A new study recently found that Social Security benefits have lost 34 percent of their purchasing power since 2000 due to rising costs and inadequate cost-of-living adjustments. Do you support the bipartisan CPI-E Act, which would make the COLA more fair and adequate?.Progressives see expanding the popular entitlement as essential to fulfilling their campaign pledges and keeping Democratic control of the House and Senate. But the reforms threaten the bottom line of insurers who administer private Medicare plans and sell supplemental coverage for dental, vision and hearing services. Groups like the American Dental Association, worried their members will be paid less in traditional Medicare than in private Medicare plans, are also pushing to limit the new benefits to the poorest Americans..In addition, the legislation froze the income thresholds at which the higher premiums are triggered so more seniors will have to pay the higher premiums as incomes gradually grow over time. TSCL's Legislative Assistant, Mike Watson, estimates that "individual seniors who made between ,000 and ,000 in 2010 could be subjected to the 'means test' in 2019, because of the frozen income thresholds. In addition, if the income thresholds for the 'means test' were allowed to increase, they would rise to about 0,500 to 1,800 in 2019."