In 2015, the monthly Medicare Part B premium for people with incomes less than ,000 was 4.90. When the Social Security Administration announced that there would be no COLA in 2016, Barbara - like 70 percent of all other Social Security recipients - was protected from reductions in her Social Security benefits by a provision of law known as "hold harmless." Barbara's Medicare Part B premium stayed the same, at 4.90, even though Medicare Part B premiums that year rose to 1.80 for people like new enrollees who were not protected by hold harmless..NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: A table showing the full list of drugs compared and details on costs can be found here.."While hold harmless is very valuable protection, the lack of an adequate COLA to begin with, and rapidly growing Part B costs, will keep millions of beneficiaries stuck in a no-growth rut in 2018," Johnson says. The Senior Citizens League is advocating legislation that would provide a more fair and adequate COLA, by tying the annual adjustment to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly. Projections for The Senior Citizens League show that by using the CPI-E, Social Security benefits would be about 9 percent higher over 25 years. A benefit of ,300 in 2017 would be about 2 per month more using the CPI-E at the end of the 25 year period instead of the current method. To learn more, visit..One of the biggest traps to determining Medicare premiums based on income is how the government defines "high income." Social Security's rules can snag even modest-income people. This can happen when a home is sold or when converting retirement accounts. One-time capital gains can put seniors over the Medicare income thresholds. The higher Medicare premiums reduce monthly Social Security benefits for an entire year. Should your mother's income in 2010 return to more modest levels she won't have to pay the means test premium surcharges and her Social Security benefit should return to more normal levels next year..While economists are still sorting out the reason for the fall in inflation, I recently asked what you have observed in the way of prices. Are the goods and services on which you typically spend most of your budget really falling - or are those prices actually going up?.TSCL delivered letters to Congress this week urging lawmakers in the House and Senate to become cosponsors of the bill, and to sign it into law before the end of this year. For progress updates on the CPI-E Act, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website or follow TSCL on Twitter..Key witnesses such as Mr. Richard Nance, Director of the Utah County Department of Drug and Alcohol Prevention and Treatment, advocated in favor of expanding telemedicine to treat those afflicted with addiction. Other witnesses such as Dr. Andrew Kolodny of Brandeis University warned that doctors need further education on safe opioid prescribing, and that it should not be influenced in any way by parties that benefit from the sale of opioids..The rationale for both the WEP and the GPO - that the Social Security benefit formula is overly generous to these individuals and that they are reaping unintended benefits - is very hard to justify today. In fact, Social Security benefits are quite modest when compared to the national pension systems of other developed nations. The modified benefit formulas used under each of these two provisions substantially reduces the benefit that workers were counting on, but these are benefits that were earned and paid for by Social Security taxes..better coverage and reduced her drug cost to a co-pay. Once you determine
