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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..Now a leading budget policy organization is pushing Congress to fully offset the cost of building the wall and other new spending and tax cuts with entitlement cuts - specifically, adopting the more slowly-growing Chained Consumer Price Index to calculate annual Cost of Living Adjustments. That's a change that would cut federal spending by about 0 billion, the group estimates.."The group of Democrats blocked one committee from advancing their party's drug-pricing legislation, with two members arguing it was too far-reaching and could stymie innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Some of those Democrats also want to rein in a proposal to expand Medicare to include dental coverage, a high priority for progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders.".TSCL is adamantly opposed to using COLA cuts to reduce the federal budget deficit. "With thousands of dollars in Social Security and Medicare benefits at stake, we urge everyone who cares about their Social Security and Medicare benefits to contact their lawmakers in Congress NOW," Benton says..On Thursday, Senate lawmakers passed legislation to suspend the debt ceiling until next spring, fund the government through December 8th, and provide .25 billion in relief to victims of Hurricane Harvey. At the time of writing this week's legislative update, the House had not yet voted on the legislation, but it is expected to pass with bipartisan support by the end of Friday afternoon..President Announces Lower Insulin Costs for some Seniors.People who are already retired, or close to it, aren't able to make adjustments to retirement plans if benefits are abruptly cut.."… Recently, our offices have received a significant increase in complaints from constituents who have gone weeks without receiving mail, similar to the surge of complaints we received last summer in the wake of USPS cuts and policy changes. These delays have had significant harmful impacts on the lives of our constituents. Because of these delays, our constituents have received bills after the dates on which payments were due or their payments were never received, and they have been forced to pay late fees..The 2020 Social Security Trustees Annual Report, April 22, 2020.