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Another concern about congressional inaction on the debt ceiling is the potential for cuts to programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. In recent debates, Social Security benefits have been used as a bargaining chip and have been held hostage to the debt limit increase. Some retirees have felt the sting of unexpected benefit cuts. In 2015, following the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act, millions of seniors, already eligible for Social Security benefits, learned that an important claiming method called "file and suspend" a particularly important protection for women who tend to have lower benefits than men would no longer be an option to them..Finally, some Good News.On Monday, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees reported on the financial standing of both programs. According to the six Trustees, Social Security and Medicare are worse off than they were just one year ago. Social Security's combined OASDI Trust Funds will reach exhaustion in 2033, three years earlier than last year's report projected. Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will face insolvency in 2024, the same date that was projected last year. However, the program's actual costs are expected to exceed estimates since the Trustees could not account for the costly "doc fix," which Congress will likely vote for at the end of this year.."The new aspect of this study of memory loss in the elderly is that it examines silent strokes and hippocampal shrinkage simultaneously," said study author Adam M. Brickman, PhD, of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center in New York..To fix this, I've introduced the FAIR Generics Act, which would stop pay-for-delay deals once and for all. Doing so would make high-quality, lower-priced generic prescription medications available to patients sooner, thus lowering prescription drug prices in numerous cases..This week, sixteen new cosponsors signed on to H.CON.RES. 72, which expresses the sense of Congress that Social Security and Medicare should be protected from benefit cuts by the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. This cosponsor surge brings the total up to 28.."This survey illustrates why budget proposals that would cut the growth of COLAs would put millions of older and disabled Americans at risk of insufficient income to cover more growing expenses," says Larry Hyland, TSCL chairman. "To put it in perspective, for every 0 worth of expenses seniors could afford in 2000, they can afford just today." Hyland adds..How can we strengthen Social Security's financing structure? Take TSCL's 2020 Senior Survey and let us know what you think about some of the leading proposals and thank you for your participation..Social Security's finances depend largely on payroll taxes, tying the strength of Social Security to the strength of the U.S. economy. The U.S. unemployment rate was more than 13.3% through May. That was worse than the 2009 Great Recession, when the unemployment rate reached a peak of 10.6% in January 20With 20.5 million people out of work, combined with a higher number of new claims for benefits as older unemployed workers turn to Social Security, there will be a significant impact on the finances of the Social Security Trust Funds. The degree of the impact depends on how long it takes to get our economy safely up and running again.