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Check My or your last "Medicare Summary Notice" to see if you've met your deductibles. Deductibles are the amount you must pay before the service is covered, and vary widely depending on the type of coverage you have in addition to Medicare Part A and Part B..Congress May Consider Ending Two Provisions That Reduce Social Security Benefits of Public Employees.Enrollment in the demonstration program far exceeds early target of 1–2 million beneficiaries set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. If all 26 state proposals are approved, approximately 3 million dual–eligible beneficiaries, about 40 percent of seniors who receive both Medicare and Medicaid, would be automatically enrolled into new managed–care plans..Compounding the problem, it's also common for people close to retirement to underestimate medical expenses. Four-out-of-ten participants in the Nationwide survey did not expect to spend any of their Social Security income on healthcare. The Social Security Administration, however, automatically deducts the Medicare Part B premium, which is 4.00 per month in 2018, from Social Security benefits. Medicare Part B premiums have been the fastest rising retiree cost over the past 18 years..Looming over all of this is the traditional August recess of Congress. That tradition started back before the discovery of electricity and therefore air conditioning. August is normally the hottest month of the year in Washington so they would all leave town to go somewhere to stay cool..The "Medicare Notch" could affect a growing number of people if inflation remains unusually low while Medicare premium increases are relatively high. With no COLA in 2011 as the Social Security Trustees predict, people protected by the hold harmless provision in 2009 would continue to pay .40 per month, people who enrolled in 2010 would continue to pay 4 because now they would be protected by hold harmless, but new enrollees in 2011 would pay an estimated 0 per month..Representative Sheila Jackson Lee introduced H.R. 46 on January 3, 201It has since been referred..To learn how much COLA cuts would cost you, try TSCL's Chained COLA calculator.."Are You a Hospital Inpatient or Outpatient?" CMS, December 2009, Product No. 11435.