To offset the increased spending, the proposal calls for approximately 0 billion in health care savings, with most coming from within the Medicare program. Under the President's plan, more beneficiaries would be subject to means testing and they would see higher premiums for Parts B and D. In addition, new beneficiaries would need to pay a copayment on home health care services, and they would also be faced with a surcharge on premiums for Medigap plans..Senate Appropriators Approve Funding Bill.Since the start of the first CPI in 1940, the BLS has made changes to how it calculates price inflation - most recently announcing changes to how they collect price data. A new paper reports that the BLS has undertaken several pilot projects in an attempt to supplement and/or replace its traditional field collection of price data with "alternative sources." If that sounds suspicious, you have good reason to ask questions. The BLS Handbook of Methods lists more than 21 changes that economists have made to how they calculate the CPI since 198In most cases the so-called "improvements" tend to slow the measured rate of inflation. That means the growth in COLAs is cut and Social Security benefits grow more slowly over time. In short, this boils down to an erosion in the buying power of your Social Security benefits when, in reality, prices are actually going up..Watch this video to learn more about prescription drug pricing:.TSCL knows how crucial they are, and we pledge to keep fighting on your behalf. But your calls and emails to your Senators and Representatives on these issues that we write about are very important and can make a real difference..Surveys show a majority of Americans would like to see an increase in the Social Security payroll tax, but a new tax reform proposal would eliminate the 12.4 percent payroll tax altogether. This would end Social Security as we know it and transform it into a welfare program for older Americans. Do you support this drastic new proposal?.The report's most critical finding was that Social Security's Disability Insurance trust fund remains in serious financial trouble. It is projected to become insolvent in 2016, and if Congress fails to take action, beneficiaries will see a 19 percent benefit cut next December. For the average disabled enrollee, that would amount to almost 0 less in monthly benefits. Each of the six Trustees urged lawmakers to reallocate the payroll tax immediately to address the program's insolvency, and to begin considering long-term solutions that will strengthen both of Social Security's trust funds..The Senior Citizens League supports legislation that would require a minimum COLA of no less than 3 percent, even in years when inflation falls below that amount. "Strengthening the COLA," Johnson says, "would help slow the drain of drain of retirement savings and help keep older Americans out of poverty." To learn more, visit..The data certainly suggests this is the case. The years in which inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Workers has been the highest, the difference in the chained CPI was the greatest. The average difference between the CPI-W and the chained CPI is 0.3 tenths of a percentage point. But in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina sent gas prices through the roof, the CPI-W paid a COLA of 4.1% the following year. The chained CPI would only have paid 3.4% - a difference of 0.7 tenths of a percentage point. In 2008 the CPI-W paid a COLA of 5.8% the following year. The chained CPI would have only paid 5.2%, a difference of 0.6 tenths of a percentage point.
