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On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee met with officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Government Accountability Office to discuss the removal of Social Security numbers from Medicare cards. According to Subcommittee Chairman Wally Herger, more than one million seniors have been victims of identity theft in the past year, largely because the Medicare cards they are encouraged to carry everyday contain sensitive information..As to the details of how healthcare reform will affect you and your husband, stay tuned. Government officials and community organizations are gearing up for consumer information and assistance efforts that will surround this fall's open enrollment period starting in October. A major poll conducted earlier this year indicates that much of the public remains confused about the status of the health law. Check coming issues of The Social Security and Medicare Advisor for how the new healthcare law will affect seniors younger than Medicare age..COLA cuts: The White House proposes switching to the more slowly - growing measure of inflation, the chained consumer price index, to calculate annual COLAs. The proposal has bipartisan support in Congress. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it would cut spending on Social Security about 7 billion over the next ten years and bring in roughly 4 billion in higher taxes. To learn how the proposal would impact your benefits, try TSCL's Chained COLA calculator..If signed into law, H.R. 3513 would take a number of steps to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, including requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate Part D drug prices, allowing the re-importation of drugs from Canada, closing the "doughnut hole" three years earlier than current law, and prohibiting "pay-for-delay" deals between drug manufacturers..I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car..With regard to your specific concerns on Social Security COLAs, as you are fully aware, after a person becomes entitled to receive Social Security benefits, his or her monthly benefit was designed to increase annually to maintain purchasing power over time. The amount of the COLA is based on inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index. If the CPI rises, Social Security benefits for the next year increase proportionately. If the CPI falls, Social Security benefits stay the same. Like you, I too have long been critical of this formula that measures the level of inflation in our economy because older Americans have different needs than the "typical" American. In addition, the current CPI fails to adequately reflect the fact that seniors rely more on medical goods and services, which have a much higher inflation rate..You would be FAR better off waiting until after you turn 66 to start benefits at your full retirement age. After reaching full retirement age, you can receive benefits and earn as much as you want with no reduction to your benefits..I'm 62 and my wife is 60. Last year she and I signed up for a new health plan on the federal health exchange. We qualified for lower premiums, but we still have trouble paying for all the out-of-pocket costs, because of the high deductibles. Now it's time to start all over. We're wondering if we should let our current plan automatically renew, or if we need to go through the hassle of shopping for new plans all over again..Retirement accounts allow your savings to grow tax-deferred, but the rules change when you turn age 70 ½. At 70 ½, traditional IRAs require the owner to take required minimum withdrawals and you can't contribute any more savings. But you can still continue to put money into other types of retirement accounts, including Roth IRAs and some types of 401s, as long as you have earnings from jobs.