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The Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset were included in the Social Security Act of 1983 to help shore up the Social Security program. I believe this has done little to secure the program and, instead, unfairly reduces the Social Security benefits of millions of public employees. Earlier this year, I reintroduced legislation, H.R. 973, the Social Security Fairness Act, to repeal these arcane policies..For years, TSCL has been advocating on Capitol Hill for a more fair and accurate Social Security COLA for beneficiaries. The Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act legislation introduced by Rep. Michael Honda is a common-sense solution that would better protect the purchasing power of Social Security benefits since it would use a more accurate measure of inflation.."The switch looks deceptively small on paper," says TSCL's Executive Director Shannon Benton. "But it would have a big impact on Social Security income," she says..The report continues, "Two House panels last week approved legislation adding vision, hearing and dental coverage to Medicare. Dental is by far the most expensive and complicated of the three to roll out: the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office previously estimated that such coverage would cost 8 billion over 10 years, compared with billion for vision and billion for hearing coverage..For the past 16 years, Johnson, has been helping friends and family members with the job of comparing health and drug plans. "It takes patience, but this is likely to be the best return on comparison shopping that you do all year," Johnson says. Here are some pointers:.I was looking forward to saving some money on premiums when I started Medicare. Boy was I surprised when my doctor discovered a new health problem and my out-of-pocket costs jumped instead. How can I budget for this in the future? I'm in a Medicare Advantage plan..Social Security checks in 2020 are almost 20 percent lower than they otherwise would be, due to the long term impact of extremely low annual inflation adjustments, according to a new analysis from The Senior Citizens League. This analysis comes as the Social Security Administration announced today that the 2021 cost of - living adjustment COLA will be just 1.3 percent, making it one of the lowest ever paid..Tax Planning? Medical Expense Deduction Becomes Less Generous in 2019.This week, one new cosponsor Rep. Glenn Thompson signed on to the Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act, bringing the total up to forty-nine. If signed into law, the PRIME Act would take a number of steps to comprehensively prevent fraud, waste, and abuse within the two programs a problem that TSCL believes must be addressed in order to ensure that scarce program dollars are being spent properly.