The Senior Citizens League supports legislation called the Fair COLA for Seniors Act that would strengthen the annual COLA by tying it to a "seniors" index, the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers, which over time is expected to provide modestly higher benefits than the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, which is used to calculate the COLA under current law. In addition, TSCL supports legislation that would provide a minimum COLA of no less than 3%. This would provide extra protection in years when inflation is below that amount..If signed into law, the BCRA would create an immediate funding crisis for the Medicare Part A Trust Fund by eliminating a key revenue source and providing the wealthiest Americans with a massive tax cut. Do you support this move, and what efforts would you back to address the Medicare funding crisis?.Use the Health and Drug Plan Finder found at..The loss of buying power is an early indicator of whether the Social Security COLA will climb in the following year. Based on consumer price index data through May of this year, we estimate that the COLA for 2019 will be about 3.3%, the highest since 201However, that number could change, since there are still several months of price data to be released before the Social Security Administration announces the COLA in October..Simply setting government spending limits and putting seniors at greater risk for rising costs does nothing to slow rising healthcare costs. TSCL is sharing the results of our recent 2011 Advisor Senior Survey on healthcare costs and the inadequacy of COLAs to cover rising costs in our visits with Members of Congress. We encourage you to contact your Members of Congress and describe your Medicare and other out-of-pocket costs and what portion of your Social Security payments is required to cover them. Use examples of recent cost increases and let them know your concerns about keeping Medicare affordable!.If you experience a steep rapid price increase like this, where the drug doubles or quadruples as it did for Janice, first check with your drug plan to learn whether the drug is still covered by your plan. You can double check the price you have been quoted by using the Medicare drug plan finder at. If the drug is covered and the price has increased like this example, please contact your Members of Congress, starting with your Representative in the House and share details about the cost increase of your drug. Members of the House have announced hearings in coming weeks to investigate this sort of price gouging and your Representative will be interested in hearing your story..If you don't want diabetic testing supplies delivered to your home, you can go to any local store that is enrolled in Medicare and buy them. Ask if the local store accepts "assignment" or the Medicare approved amount as payment in full. If they do not, the store may charge more than the 20 percent coinsurance and any unmet deductible. Shop around. Call your local stores and find out what your copayment would be first if you decide to pick up supplies instead..Then on Monday there was a report that Congressional negotiators were closing in on a government spending bill agreement after keeping the funding for Veterans Affairs Mission Act under the .4 trillion budget cap, a significant victory for the House Republicans who insisted on this provision, according to two congressional aides..To help protect the buying power of earned benefits, The Senior Citizens League is fighting proposals to cut COLAs. TSCL has developed an online calculator for the public to learn how much a COLA cut would cost in Social Security income. Visit seniorsleague.org/chained-cola-calculator/.
