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Recently we asked for your stories and comments on how rising prescription drug costs impact you. The following story illustrates new administrative efforts by Medicare to "educate" beneficiaries about their options for less expensive prescription meds, by sending out letters listing lower cost medications. The question we need to ask our lawmakers is why is this necessary? Does the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services believe we are impoverishing ourselves by using more expensive drugs if a less expensive alternative was effective, to begin with? Unfortunately, sometimes the older, less expensive drugs don't work as well, and with metastatic cancer drugs, quality of life can be at stake. Our sincere thank you to Janice S. a retiree living in Illinois, for sharing the following..Can You Tell Me My Full Retirement Age?.If Congress does nothing and the Social Security disability trust fund is allowed to become fully exhausted, there will still be payroll taxes coming into the program, but 11 million disability beneficiaries would see their benefits automatically cut by about 20%, according to the Congressional Research Service.[2] The reallocation of payroll taxes from the retirement trust fund is likely to gain increasing attention from Congress in coming months, although it's unclear when or if Congress will act..Social Security represents America's promise that after a lifetime of hard work and paying into the system, senior citizens have earned greater financial security in their golden years, free from abject poverty. Americans expect that when their leaders give their word, they keep it..Although Social Security recipients didn't receive an annual cost of living adjustment this year, many are reporting that their costs are rising, and household budgets are getting squeezed, says The Senior Citizens League. Donna C. of New York, recently wrote to TSCL saying, "No inflation? Are you serious? What about the price of electricity, food, drugs, local taxes? All, going up. We can barely survive now, and you say there's no inflation? Who figures this stuff out and who decides?" she asks..From 1950 through 1974, Social Security benefits were increased 11 times through separate pieces of ad hoc legislation at irregular intervals. The increases varied just as they do today but averaged 8% per year over the 24-year period although there were long lapses between COLAs during some periods..The Social Security OIG report concluded, "Having an SSN on the MBR - regardless of the date of entitlement - improves the Social Security Administration's ability to prevent improper payments," and recommended that the agency take additional steps to ensure the oldest auxiliary beneficiaries without an SSN are still alive. Yet the Social Security Administration disagreed, saying that the Agency "believed current policies and safeguards were appropriate to meet program needs.".However, it's not clear whether employers are going to pass the savings on to employees. Since the taxes would be deferred, not waived, several experts question whether firms would actually pass the money along to their workers, because it is the businesses that are on the hook for the taxes..Ask for an adjustment and get your money back. To establish the appropriate charge for your mother's 2011 prescriptions, you will need to ensure that your mother's 2011 drug card information is correctly entered in the pharmacy's system. You will also want to have the following documents on hand: