Report Section Medicare Part D A First Look At Prescription Drug Plans In 2019 TablesThe 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..TSCL is disappointed that Congress has not yet taken action to avert an irresponsible default on the federal debt, and we urge our members and supporters to contact your representatives in Congress to request a clean and immediate increase in the debt ceiling. For updates on the status of this important issue, visit TSCL's website at, or find us on Facebook and Twitter..While the Social Security hold harmless provision provides important protection from Social Security reductions, more money is required to catch up to Medicare Part B levels in following years. If COLAs continue to remain low, premiums would adjusted again due to low COLAs. COLAs would have to be substantially higher in following years or the whole process would happen all over again. … Continued
Mercy Hospital FoundationThis week, one new cosponsor Senator Dean Heller signed on to Senator David Vitter's Notch Fairness Act. Senator Heller is currently the bill's only cosponsor..President Trump's budget includes billion in cuts from the Social Security Disability Insurance program over the next 10 years despite the President's repeated campaign promises that he would not touch Social Security benefits. Trump's budget Director Mick Mulvaney justified the cuts, arguing that SSDI was not technically part of "mainline" Social Security, and therefore the President was not breaking a campaign promise. Said Mulvaney, "If you ask 999 people out of a thousand, they'd tell you Social Security disability is not part of Social Security.".If that's so why hasn't anybody done it yet? The options Congress has to address the debt are dwindling and the choices that are left are wrenching. … Continued