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"Extra Help Basics," Medicare Interactive, The Medicare Rights Center, accessed on June 19, 2018..Get the spiel. Keep pen and paper close to your phone and the next time you get the call, write down the offer. Without giving away any of your own information stay on the line to talk to an agent. What is the item or service and what are the terms?.When You Can't Afford Your Prescription Drugs, Apply For "Extra Help".To learn more about avoiding problems with your drug plan, and how to prevent unnecessary drug costs in 2012, read some of the related Frequently Asked Questions..Berna Heyman, a retired librarian who has Wilson Disease testified how she was a victim of obscene price gouging. Her annual co-pay for the drug Syprine rose from 0 in 2013 to ,000 in 2014, with her drug plan paying over 0,000. When she and her doctor applied for Valeant pharmaceutical's patient assistance program, she was denied financial assistance from the manufacturer because she was on Medicare..I've been filling my mother's prescriptions at the same pharmacy without a problem and charged the same co-payment every month. In November when I picked up her prescription, I was charged the full price of the drug. She was not near the doughnut hole. I was told her drug card "was not in the system." I went ahead and paid the full price because my mother needed the prescription, but what can I do now?.We have been hearing from hundreds of you who are watching the inflation numbers and eagerly looking forward to getting a high inflation boost next year. But a number of you point out an urgent problem that occurs when COLAs raise the income of people with lower incomes. The higher inflation boost can sometimes disqualify people of modest means from receiving low-income benefits such as food stamps or rental assistance..According to TSCL's research, Barbara is correct. Since 2000, Social Security benefits have lost 30 percent of their buying power due to inaccurate COLAs, and in the last year alone, they have lost 7 percent. This loss of purchasing power has occurred because Social Security COLAs are based on the spending patterns of young, urban workers not the spending patterns of retirees..I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. My doctor first prescribed Femara. Within a few weeks, I knew I was not going to be able to continue with this medication because I was experiencing severe bone and joint pain. My doctor then chose Aromasin. This was obviously the drug for me.