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He noted that a vaccine's rarer side effects are often not recognized until it is put into broad use. To discover an adverse outcome that only occurs in one person in 100,000, for instance, a company would need to test it in 384,250 people from broad backgrounds and with a variety of medical conditions..Increase the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment to reflect the inflation experienced by retirees..What are budget cutters looking at? Here are a few key proposals under discussion. After reviewing these, tell us what you think by taking our survey..For a big eye-opener on how illegal immigrants can become entitled to Social Security under current law and for information on Social Security's totalization agreement with Mexico, read Social Security Benefits For Noncitizens, from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, Publication No. RL32004..The Pelosi bill if enacted would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies in order to lower them..A report came out this weekend about the possibility of new major cuts to Medicare. This could result because of Senate rules about how many votes it takes to pass legislation..For updates on our progress, visit our home page. And be sure to cast your vote on November 8th for the candidates you trust the most to reform the program responsibly in the 115th Congress..The idea is to cut government spending on Medicare by limiting the annual growth of the Medicare voucher to the growth of the gross domestic product plus one percentage point. However, for the last 40 years national healthcare spending has exceeded the growth of the gross domestic product by more than two percentage points, and TSCL is highly concerned that the vouchers would rapidly become increasingly inadequate to purchase sufficient coverage or that seniors would face significantly higher premiums. In addition, the CBO recently wrote that the average age and cost of enrollees remaining in the current system would increase over time, and TSCL believes that would lead to far higher premiums for older beneficiaries as well..In addition, one new cosponsor Rep. Corrine Brown signed on to the Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act. The cosponsor total is now up to one hundred and forty-four. If signed into law, H.R. 1179 would amend current Medicare policy to count hospital stays under "observation status" towards the three-day requirement for skilled nursing care. Currently, those under "observation status" don't qualify for coverage of the benefit, and they are often hit with large, unexpected bills after receiving necessary medical care. TSCL believes the current policy is unfair, and we were glad to see support grow for H.R. 1179 this week.