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For information about town hall meetings near you during the summer congressional recess, call the local offices of your elected officials. For Congressional contact information, visit our website at..Higher Medigap costs: Experts say that beneficiaries with Medigap supplements tend to use more services than those without such coverage. Currently the plans often cover part or most of the deductibles and the co-insurance. Lawmakers from both parties propose requiring beneficiaries enrolled in Medigap plans to pay more through higher deductibles and co-payments. President Obama's 2014 budget plan called for imposing a new surcharge on beneficiaries who buy Medigap plans in 2017..As was noted in last week's update, the AHCA would reform the current health system and negatively impact older Americans in several ways. It would restructure the Medicaid program, which funds nursing home care for many qualified Medicare beneficiaries. It would base premium subsidies on age instead of income, while allowing private health insurers to charge older Americans five times more than they charge younger folks for their coverage. And it would deplete Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund by eliminating two revenue sources that the ACA created, creating a funding crisis for the program..By Representative Mike Garcia.The plans also reduce spending on premiums, because they eliminate the need for supplemental insurance. While the majority of Medicare beneficiaries still receive their Medicare benefits through traditional Medicare, many also purchase a Medicare supplement or "Medigap" policy to cover the considerable amount of out-of-pocket spending that Medicare alone does not cover, and a free-standing Part D drug plan..long-term care is expected to increase by at least 5% per year. If the daily.If signed into law, S. 1904 would strengthen Social Security benefits by enacting an across-the-board benefit increase, adopting the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers, increasing the minimum Social Security benefit to 125 percent of the poverty line, and increasing the threshold on the taxation of Social Security benefits. It would also strengthen the solvency of the trust funds by applying the payroll tax to income over 0,000, increasing the payroll tax rate by 0.05 percent annually until it reaches 7.65 percent, and reallocating funds to the Disability Insurance trust fund..The Velcro effect of anchoring can influence far more consequential decisions, in ways we may not even realize. Consider the process of determining the "right" retirement age:."Auxiliary Beneficiaries Who Do Not Have Their Own Social Security Number," Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, September 2014, A-01-14-14036.