At this point in time, it remains to be seen whether or not lawmakers will successfully avert the October 1st shutdown. Leaders in the House have already cancelled the week-long recess that was scheduled to begin on September 23rd, and according to Congressional Quarterly, a Senate vote on the measure could come as late as September 29th just one day before funding for federal agencies expires..of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and one of the foremost experts in the world on infectious diseases, said "the next six to 12 weeks are going to be the darkest of the entire pandemic.".Last year the Senate was a bigger problem when dealing with passing legislation but there still may be hope this year for a bi-partisan bill authored by Senators Ron Wyden and Chuck Grassley. "The bill would cap seniors' drug costs and penalize drugmakers for raising prices too fast - a provision that many Republicans have likened to price controls. It would save the government a projected billion over a decade, far less than the 0 billion-plus under the House negotiation bill," according to Politico..Early in the summer, I spent an afternoon at one of two critical access hospitals in my district in Southeastern Ohio. It's a hospital with just 25 beds and an Emergency Department no larger than many families' kitchens. Still, every year the doctors and nurses there care for more than 2,000 inpatients and treat an astonishing 50,000 outpatients.."According to the findings, seventy-two senators and 302 members of the House of Representatives cashed a check from the pharmaceutical industry ahead of the 2020 election - representing more than two-thirds of Congress, according to a new STAT analysis of records for the full election cycle.."Under current Social Security law, that is all that's required to later claim benefits," Hyland explains. "To file a claim, individuals must have a work-authorized Social Security number, and would become vested for benefits with ten years of earnings," Hyland says. "The oldest of those who are eligible for the deferred action could feasibly have worked illegally long enough to already be vested for Social Security - even for disability benefits," Hyland notes. This would add to the program's solvency problems since the Congressional Budget Office and Social Security Trustees have estimated that the Social Security disability trust fund will be fully insolvent by 2016..Medicare does not cover routine dental care that you normally receive for the health of your teeth. According to Medicare Interactive, a resource for answers to your Medicare questions maintained by the Medicare Rights Center, Medicare will not cover routine checkups, cleanings or fillings. In particular Medicare will not pay for dentures. Even if you have to have teeth extracted as preparation for a medical procedure, you are responsible for the cost of your dentures..The program is projected to have enough tax income to pay about 23% less than currently scheduled, according to the Congressional Research Service. But economists warn that without changes to reduce the deficit, the Social Security Trust Fund will get into trouble long before the program is scheduled to become insolvent. Indeed, beneficiaries got a glimpse of what may lay ahead during last summer's battle over the debt limit. According to estimates from the Bi-partisan Policy Center, the federal government did not have sufficient revenues to cover Social Security benefits last August. Congress came within hours of a default on what it owed to the Trust Fund, and thus falling short on money needed to pay benefits before enacting legislation..This year, more than 50% of Social Security beneficiaries paid taxes on their benefits, even though many of them only made twice the federal poverty level in income. Do you believe this is fair, and if not, what should be done about it?
