Telephone scammers are bilking Medicare out of billions of dollars, and bombarding millions of older U.S. consumers with multiple daily automated phone calls for everything from "free" back braces to genetic tests. While Medicare scams have been with us for decades, what's new is the use of automated calling technology, and the massive international scale of the scams..High Dose and Adjuvanted Flu Vaccine Side Effects.In past years, Congress has chosen to allow this cost to shift to the 30 percent beneficiaries who are not held harmless. The total cost increase is spread over far fewer people, instead of all beneficiaries, and those who are not protected pay a much bigger share of Medicare Part B costs. This could happen again for the 2021 premium..As we look to the start of the 117th Congress, my commitment to seniors and workers is to fully support Social Security and Medicare and to oppose cuts to these vital programs. We have many challenges ahead of us. We must keep the economy moving and growing again as we fight coronavirus. Government spending must get under control. And we must ensure Social Security and Medicare works for today's seniors and future generations. There are ways to do both!.The high dose and adjuvanted flu vaccines may result in more of the temporary, mild side effects that can occur with standard-dose seasonal shots. Side effects can include pain, redness or swelling at the injection site, headache, muscle ache and malaise, and typically resolve with 1 to 3 days..In the House, Representative Kevin McCarthy will take over the top post House Minority Leader for Republicans next year. Representative Steve Scalise will become the Minority Whip, and Representative Liz Cheney will hold the position of House Republican Conference Chairwoman. House Democrats, who will take over the majority in the House next year, will hold their leadership elections on November 28th, following the Thanksgiving recess..Despite known challenges ahead for seniors, the COLA may be the next victim of the fiscal cliff. Leading deficit reduction plans under discussion would significantly whittle the Social Security benefits that the majority of seniors count on for more than half of their income..This week, Senator Sherrod Brown introduced legislation that would repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision two Social Security provisions that unfairly reduce the earned benefits of millions of state and local government employees each year. The Social Security Fairness Act was introduced with the bipartisan support of fourteen original cosponsors in the Senate..The funding of President Trump's border wall, which is part of the funding for the Department of Homeland Security, had been a major sticking point but that has apparently been resolved.
