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With my first bill, the Save Social Security Act, we are keeping our promise to our seniors and strengthening Social Security. This legislation eliminates the Social Security tax break for people making over 0,000 a year, while maintaining it for income earned from the current cap of 7,200 up to 0,000. This is a fairer way to extend the life of the program. In fact, the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration found that my legislation would extend the program's solvency for another 30 years, keeping it on firm financial footing through 206At that point, it would also close 2/3 of the remaining gap, allowing Social Security to still pay 90 percent of benefits..Drug Discount Card May be Illegal.New rules prohibit insurers from rejecting applicants with pre-existing health problems or charging you more based on your health history. The law also sets limits on how much insurers may charge older buyers. Premiums for a 64-year-old can be no more than three times as much as they are for a 21-year-old. However, concerns are widespread that insurance costs could still be challenging for many seniors..Economic forecasts for 2013 warn of a financial crisis ahead. Nobody is feeling it more acutely than seniors living on fixed incomes. Retirees and disabled adults won't see much of a cost-of-living adjustment increase in benefits this year. At 1.7%, the 2013 is one of the lowest ever paid, not counting 2010 and 2011 when no COLA was payable at all. Timing couldn't be worse..Take a class: Work out your brain and memory cells in addition to socializing with others by taking classes. Some 119 colleges in every state offer noncredit classes designed for people age 50 and older. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute courses are available at very low cost. In Charlottesville, Virginia, for example, students pay a annual membership, the first course of the fall session is and then each course thereafter is only ..Even when you spend ,000 out-of-pocket, there are still out-of-pocket costs. At the catastrophic level of coverage there are smaller co-pays or 5% coinsurance, which can further lead to substantial out-of-pocket spending. In 2015, for example, Part D enrollees with out-of-pocket costs above the catastrophic threshold comprised just 2 percent of all enrollees, but their spending totaled 20 percent of enrollees' total out-of-pocket spending for the year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation..What TSCL does is try to hold elected officials accountable, not just in an election year, but when there is not an election. With your continued support, we will do just that..Social Security benefits have lost 33 percent of buying power since 2000, according to the latest Social Security Loss of Buying Power Study released today by The Senior Citizens League. "One would think that a higher cost-of-living adjustment in 2019, combined with relatively low inflation, would lead to an improvement of buying power in Social Security benefits," says study author Mary Johnson, a Social Security policy analyst for the League. "But any improvement was offset by spiking costs of essentials, including out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs," Johnson says..This week, sixteen new cosponsors signed on to H.CON.RES. 72, which expresses the sense of Congress that Social Security and Medicare should be protected from benefit cuts by the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. This cosponsor surge brings the total up to 28.