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Compare generic costs: You sometimes pay more for common generics using your drug plan, than you would simply by visiting a pharmacy with generic program. Compare the costs first. If the generic saves you money over your normal co-pay, put your drug plan card away and shop at the discount pharmacy. Save your coverage for more expensive prescriptions..In some cases, where the surviving spouse is younger, or there is a disabled child, the higher monthly benefit might be preferable because presumably it would be payable for a longer period of time. In addition, the Notch Reform benefit would be split among eligible survivors, for example, a widow and a former divorced spouse. Under these circumstances the higher monthly benefit may also yield more than the lump-sum. But for most Notch Babies or their survivors, TSCL believes the lump-sum would provide a higher benefit..I believe Social Security is a promise made to hard working Americans a promise that must be kept. We need to improve our economy to get folks back to work and paying into the program so our children and grandchildren have access to the same social safety net. I will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to keep these promises made to seniors and it starts by passing H.R. 973..Immigration law forbids working in this country without legal authorization and a Social Security Number. Yet millions of "undocumented" immigrant workers are earning income. Illegals often get jobs by using illegally obtained, forged, or invalid Social Security numbers. Employers in turn withhold payroll taxes and report the earnings to the Social Security Administration using those numbers. When the numbers don't match up with the numbers issued by SSA, they go into a special file called the "Earnings Suspense File." Valid numbers issued from the U.S. government are also misused..Again, according to the Politico report, "Several of the moderate Democrats expressing reservations about the drug pricing bill are the targets of a million-plus campaign by the conservative American Action Network opposing the legislation. The group plans to air ads in the districts of more than 40 Democrats, slamming H.R. 3 as "Nancy Pelosi's socialist prescription drug takeover plan" and warning it would 'cancel new cures for the patients who need them and send American innovation overseas.'".Medicare Part B premiums were found to be the fastest growing cost for seniors, increasing by 195 percent over the eighteen-year period. Average out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs followed closely behind, increasing by 188 percent. Meanwhile, between 2000 and 2018 the COLA increased Social Security benefits by only 46 percent..So far activists, including TSCL's members and supporters, have managed to keep Capitol Hill lawmakers wary of making major changes. But the issue isn't going away any time soon. The nation will once again reach the federal debt limit by the end of next year, and at the same time, lawmakers will be confronted with the looming insolvency of the Social Security Disability program. Deficit reduction battles are likely to dominate the Congressional agenda once again, and cutting COLAs remains the target of major deficit reduction plans..I've been filling my mother's prescriptions at the same pharmacy without a problem and charged the same co-payment every month. In November when I picked up her prescription, I was charged the full price of the drug. She was not near the doughnut hole. I was told her drug card "was not in the system." I went ahead and paid the full price because my mother needed the prescription, but what can I do now?.According to a March analysis of an earlier version of the bill by the CBO, the legislation would restructure Medicaid safety net by capping costs. "This would have a profound impact on low-income Medicare beneficiaries," Johnson says. About 1 in 5 people on Medicare, 11 million beneficiaries in all, have incomes so low that they qualify for Medicaid, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.