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The suppressed growth in Social Security benefits not only creates ongoing benefit adequacy issues for retirees, but also Medicare budget problems when the COLA is not sufficient to cover rising Part B premiums for large numbers of beneficiaries. When the dollar amount of the annual Medicare Part B premium increase is greater than the dollar amount of an individual's annual cost of living adjustment, the Social Security benefits of about 70 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are protected by the hold-harmless provision in the Social Security Act. The Medicare Part B premium of those individuals is reduced to prevent their net Social Security benefits from being lower than the year before..It's likely the surprise billing package will be attached to the year-end government spending bill, as lawmakers attempted to do late last year, assuming they can come to an agreement by the end of the year..The Senior Citizens League would like to remind you that Election Day is Tuesday, November 6th. Contact your local government if you require voting assistance. In most states, those who have trouble casting a ballot due to physical barriers are entitled to request assistance..If you didn't sign up with Medicare for Part A and/or Part B when you first turned 65, because you were covered by your own or your wife's company's plan, you may need to sign up during the 8-month period that began after your wife's employment ended in order to avoid a late enrollment penalty..A majority of the 60 million senior and disabled Americans who receive Social Security depend on it for at least 50 percent of their total income, and one–third of all beneficiaries rely on it for 90 percent or more of their income. To help protect the buying power of benefits, TSCL supports bipartisan legislation called the Fair COLA for Seniors Act that would base COLAs on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly. To learn more, visit..These price increases are very likely to block some patients from affording their medication, following instructions for taking the drugs, result in higher costs for treatment in the future because of not taking the prescriptions as directed, and cause higher incidents of additional health issues and death rates..Also, we should be wearing masks outdoors as well as indoors at this time. While being indoors with others is far riskier, being outdoors is not risk free if you are with others you don't live with..Trustees Release Annual Financial Reports.That fear comes from the fact that some of those same lawmakers who are demanding action on the bipartisan infrastructure bill ahead of the reconciliation package have also expressed misgivings with taking on drug-pricing changes without Republican support.