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Fastest Growing Costs of Older Households Since Beginning of 2021.President Trump recently said that the United States has to create new bidding procedures for the drug industry. TSCL believes that new bidding procedures alone would not give Medicare the power to bring down prices on drugs when a company holds a monopoly on the only drug available to treat specific conditions. TSCL supports giving Medicare greater power to negotiate the price of drugs like it does for all other services covered under Medicare, and making it easier to import less expensive FDA approved drugs..TSCL will keep a close eye on the negotiations as they evolve in the coming weeks, and we will encourage lawmakers to avoid another government shutdown. For updates, visit the Legislative News section of our website, or our new account on Twitter..Even if you stay in the hospital overnight, Medicare still considers observation services as outpatient care and requires you to pay a bigger share of the costs. Your inpatient status is also important to determining whether Medicare will cover care you receive if you are later released to a skilled nursing the facility..One witness, Scott Serota, President and CEO of the BlueCross BlueShield Association, suggested a gradual shift from the current fee-for-service system toward a series of new payment models that would allow for geographic variability. Another witness, David Bronson, President of the American College of Physicians, suggested a patient-centered medical home model, where each patient would choose a physician with a specific team of caregivers. He explained that his model would result in better coordinated care for seniors..The adjuvanted flu vaccine is made with MF59 adjuvant, an additive that can create a stronger immune response to vaccination. In a recent review of multiple vaccine trials, older adults who received a MF59-adjuvated vaccine had a significantly higher immune response than those who received a standard flu vaccine, The adjuvanted vaccine was available for the first time in the United States during the 2016-2017 flu season. Learn more about adjuvanted flu vaccine here..You can also get one-on-one counseling and assistance in applying through your State Health Insurance Program. Find the contact for your area online at: shiptacenter.org..For progress updates or for more information about these and other bills that would strengthen Social Security and Medicare programs, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website or follow TSCL on Twitter..low - income Medicare beneficiaries whose Part B is paid for by state Medicaid programs, and,

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Now, a new fight over the practice has emerged as Health groups and consumer advocates are mounting a lobbying campaign to shape forthcoming federal rules around the ban. These are the same health groups that fought bitterly during the law's drafting about who would pick up the costs they could no longer bill to patients..Born and raised in Minnesota, Larry Madison moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 1987 with his family to pursue a career as a copywriter and account executive at The Viguerie Company, a nationally known political fund-raising firm. After three years at TVC, he left to become head of fund raising for the American Defense Institute, and then for the American Security Council, both non-profit organizations involved in supporting a strong national defense..Enactment of Notch Reform remains a TSCL priority in 201Recently, TSCL legislative staff made personal visits to nearly every Member of the U.S. House, delivering petitions calling for the immediate enactment of The Notch Fairness Act H.R. 1001 and S. 11The legislation would provide Notch Babies born 1917 through 1926 with a choice of ,000 payable in four annual installments or an improved monthly benefit. … Continued

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Incredibly, according to a legal opinion obtained by TSCL in 2009, Totalization with Mexico may give Mexican immigrants greater rights to U.S. Social Security benefits than U.S. senior citizens currently enjoy. The proposed U.S./Mexico Totalization Agreement would be based on a contractual promise made by the United States government for the benefit of individual Mexican workers who qualify for U.S. Social Security benefits under the terms of that agreement..That means the trust fund reserves money that came out of your paychecks to finance your earned benefits would become unusable by the Social Security and Medicare programs. Here's how that could lead to benefit cuts….Two years is a long time for even Members of Congress to go without a paycheck giving them a good incentive to bury the budget hatchet. The government will again reach the federal budget limit later this fall. A group of Republican senators have been meeting privately with the White House to lay the groundwork for a deficit reduction agreement. President Obama included a proposal to cut Social Security cost-of-living-adjustments in his fiscal year 2014 budget. GOP leaders are trying to work out a compromise on a new spending agreement. TSCL is fighting COLA cuts and visiting Members of Congress. We urge you to send letters to the editor of your local media to educate the public on the importance of the COLA and to use examples of rising costs that illustrate the erosion in the buying power of your benefits. … Continued