By using reconciliation, it would mean there would have to billions of dollars cut from current spending programs, including Medicare..A new study recently found that Social Security benefits have lost 34 percent of their purchasing power since 2000 due to rising costs and inadequate cost-of-living adjustments. Do you support the bipartisan CPI-E Act, which would make the COLA more fair and adequate?.There's not much time to head off this situation. We can't let Congress think they can shrug and look the other way again this time. A 2.5% COLA is the amount that the Congressional Budget Office estimated beneficiaries would get in 2021, and those funds are already factored into the Social Security spending projections for 2021..About 44 percent of TSCL Senior Survey respondents last year said that their Social Security benefit was lower in 2011 after deduction for Medicare premium payments. Another TSCL survey found that 44 percent of respondents also said they spent at least 0 a month on Medicare premiums and other out-of-pocket costs in 201"With the average benefit at ,100, about 17 million seniors are spending one-third of their Social Security benefit on Medicare costs, " Hyland observes..Several provisions within the H-CARE act include; increasing payments to Rural Health Clinics, authorizing to million annually for grants to rural providers to help with the cost of implementing health information technology, requiring prompt payment to rural pharmacies by Medicare prescription drug plans and ensuring that rural Americans are appropriately represented on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission..Experts estimate that fraud, waste, and abuse within Medicare cost more than billion each year. What efforts do you support to ramp up prevention?.The Senior Citizens League believes that the on-going Medicare cuts have weakened our ability to respond to national emergencies like COVID-1It has exacerbated a national healthcare worker shortage - including doctors and nurses, as well as the capacity of the nation's hospitals to deal with the sudden large influx of patients generated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many hospitals, doctors' offices, and nursing homes have required additional federal and state assistance as well as donations from the public, to acquire personal protective equipment such as masks, gowns, and gloves..For more tips like these to save on your Medicare costs and to maximize your Social Security benefits, sign up for The Senior Citizens League's Social Security & Medicare Advisor newsletter here or call for more information..Does it make sense to allow so many to become entitled based on illegal benefits? Previous estimates by TSCL and other policy groups project that the cost could add hundreds of billions of dollars to a program that is now in deficit.
