This week, the House Budget Committee advanced a budget resolution that would reform the Medicare program, and the Senate Aging Committee met to discuss the trajectory of Alzheimer's disease. In addition, three key bills gained support in Congress..Two Key Bills Gain Support.The Internal Revenue Service interpreted the law to allow eligible consumers to receive premium subsidies regardless of whether the exchange was run by their state or by the federal government. Challengers of the law question that interpretation, saying that the law as written clearly directs subsidies to state-run exchanges only. Health law proponents say that lawmakers fully intended that subsidies be offered on all exchanges, regardless of whether they were administered by the states or federal government..TSCL enthusiastically supports the Strengthening Social Security Act since it would extend the solvency of the Trust Fund responsibly, while also making benefits for seniors more fair and accurate. We look forward to working with Sen. Harkin and Reps. Sanchez and Holt in the coming months to help build support for their bill..The order that encourages importation of cheaper medicines by states, wholesalers, and pharmacies, is an effort already in the works since last year..The non - partisan Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that, if 500,000 of the roughly 6 million Americans with Alzheimer's are prescribed Aduhelm, total Medicare spending on this one drug, for one year, would be nearly billion. This would far exceed the spending on any other drug covered by Medicare Part B, or Part D, in 201Medicare spending for all Part B drugs was billion in 201What's more the estimated billion does not include the cost of any associated care. The drug can cause some people temporary brain swelling or small bleeding spots on the brain and requires pricey magnetic resonance imaging scans to monitor treatment..Rather than cutting back on one or two drugs, there was a large group that stopped filling most if not all their prescriptions as copays went up..Firstly, the Senior Security Act will create a Senior Investor Taskforce at the SEC that will exclusively focus on how seniors are being targeted by fraudsters and those who seek to take financial advantage of them. This new Taskforce will identify challenges that senior investors encounter and will identify areas within the SEC or other organizations where senior investors would benefit from changes. The Senior Investor Taskforce will also coordinate with other offices within the Commission and the Elder Justice Coordinating Council. When appropriate, the Taskforce will consult state securities and law enforcement and state insurance regulators to ensure we're all doing as much as we can, at every level of government, to stop this..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.
