Assessing Drug Price Increases In Medicare Part D And The Implications Of Inflation LimitsTrustees tend to report the financial condition of the combined Social Security Trust Funds, including the one that pays retirement benefits, as solvent until 203But there are actually two separate Trust Funds with separate accounting. One Trust Fund cannot borrow or receive reallocated payroll taxes from the other without legislative action from Congress - a short - term fix that Congress has relied on 11 times in the past..Here is a portion of that report:.The study examined the increase in costs of 32 key items between 2000 and January 201The items were chosen because they are typical of the costs seniors must bear. Of the 32 costs analyzed, 20 exceeded the COLA. The selected items represent eight categories, weighted by approximate expenditure. … Continued
Health Conditions And Treatments Eat Healthy Desserts Lemon Cream With Blueberries"Should Social Security's Cost-of Living Adjustment Be Changed?" National Academy of Social Insurance, April 2011..Looming over all of this is the traditional August recess of Congress. That tradition started back before the discovery of electricity and therefore air conditioning. August is normally the hottest month of the year in Washington so they would all leave town to go somewhere to stay cool..The data certainly suggests this is the case. The years in which inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Workers has been the highest, the difference in the chained CPI was the greatest. The average difference between the CPI-W and the chained CPI is 0.3 tenths of a percentage point. But in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina sent gas prices through the roof, the CPI-W paid a COLA of 4.1% the following year. The chained CPI would only have paid 3.4% - a difference of 0.7 tenths of a percentage point. In 2008 the CPI-W paid a COLA of 5.8% the following year. The chained CPI would have only paid 5.2%, a difference of 0.6 tenths of a percentage point. … Continued