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The federal government negotiates prescription drug prices for Medicaid and for veterans, but it is barred from negotiating lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries. As a result, senior citizens enrolled in Part D often pay much higher prices for their prescriptions. What are you doing to correct this unfair policy?.Medicare Part B premiums jumped .10 per month in 2020 - one of the biggest increases in recent years. While the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment increased benefits by 1.6 percent in 2020, Medicare Part B premiums climbed 6.7 percent, more than four times faster. A jump of this size can put older household budgets into a bind, forcing retirees to go without essentials when they run short before their next Social Security check..home care after a certain length of time in the hospital..While a compromise was not reached, some consider the automatic budget cuts as a silver lining. "The good news, if there is no agreement, the nation is going to end up with what Republicans said, there will be a dollar spending reduction for every dollar increase in the debt ceiling" said Hensarling. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney echoed the same optimism: "It's important to remember, however, that because of the Budget Control Act, the 1.2 trillion dollars that the Super Committee was supposed to achieve in deficit reduction will happen regardless.".In an ideal world, prior authorization is supposed to deter patients from receiving care that is not truly medically necessary, thus reducing costs for insurers and out-of-pocket costs of enrollees. But prior authorization is sometimes misused to create barriers to getting care, or to even deny medically necessary care. Regardless of how prior authorization is used, it creates extra administrative hassles for physicians when they have to file the documentation to obtain the authorization..Because of age-related changes in their immune systems, people 65 years and older may not respond as well to vaccination as younger people. Although immune responses may be lower in older people, studies have consistently found that flu vaccine has been effective in reducing the risk of medical visits and hospitalizations associated with flu..The Social Security COLA was intended to protect the buying power of older Americans who for the most part, are no longer in the workforce. The majority of retirees depend on Social Security for at least half of their income, meaning that Social Security benefits tend to be spent immediately on essentials like housing, food and healthcare returning billions of dollars to the U.S. economy every year..Tying the annual cost-of-living adjustments to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly. We expect this change would pay a COLA that's about.25 percentage point per year higher and would boost average benefits about per month by the end of a 20-year period..Out-of-pocket costs for dental, vision, audio, physical therapy and other services not covered by Medicare or other health insurance. This also includes equipment and supplies, like glasses, hearing aid batteries, dentures and implants.