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The high cost of health care is one of the biggest threats to Medicare and older Americans' health in general. I stand ready to take action on drug price negotiation and Medicare-X and to debate whatever ideas Democrats, Republicans, and independents have to bring down the cost of health care today and protect Medicare's viability for generations to come..The Social Security Cost-Of-Living Adjustment is likely to be the first target for cuts. Most deficit plans in recent years propose tying the annual inflation boost to a more slowly - growing consumer price index known as the chained CPI. The new tax legislation, in fact, adopts the chained CPI to adjust tax brackets and the new expanded standard deduction. That will mean the standard deduction will grow more slowly than before and that people will wind up in higher tax brackets, or a greater portion of their income will be subject to tax, more quickly than before. For retirees, the chained CPI would mean lower COLAs, as well - if Congress extends the change to Social Security..I have proudly introduced this important legislation every single Congress since coming to the House of Representatives in 201Despite having over 100 bipartisan cosponsors each Congress, the bill has unfortunately received little attention from House leadership. In September 2018, myself and my colleague, Rep. Garret Graves offered this bill as an amendment to the Family Savings Act, which was part of Rep. Kevin Brady's "Tax 2.0" package. Unfortunately, the amendment was ultimately defeated, but highlighting this important issue. It continues to be my priority..TSCL believes that legislative changes that would switch to the chained CPI and cut COLAs will be a key feature of deficit reduction talks and plans that become public after the November elections. You can help! Sign TSCL's Social Security Fairness Petition online or call to have a petition mailed to you..TSCL has been monitoring the case closely in recent months because if implemented, the executive orders would have provided millions of undocumented immigrants with controversial access to Social Security and Medicare benefits. In a press release, Ed Cates TSCL's Chairman said: "Concern is high that undocumented immigrants who were illegally present and who worked under fake, invalid, or fraudulent Social Security numbers may benefit based on such work, potentially at the expense of others who paid into the system the legal way.".If you get a call from someone that you don't know who is asking for personal information, don't be polite - hang up or shut the door. If you do get such a call about new Medicare cards, you may help other retirees avoid scams by calling your local newspaper and TV stations to alert the local news media to the attempt. Tell journalists what almost happened to you and ask for their help to get the word out to other retirees..Congress still must fund the federal government for FY202They are supposed to do that by the end of September since the new fiscal year starts October But that hasn't been accomplished for the last several years and it is almost certain they won't do it again this year..With Medicare Part B premiums growing several times faster than COLAs, premiums routinely offset a significant portion of the annual inflation boost. This, in turn, causes retired households to draw down savings more rapidly than planned, and many retired households to carry growing amounts of debt. Lower income households may go without adequate food, medically necessary health services, and to postpone filling prescriptions..Conferees Hit Budget Impasse