According to a report in BGov News, "… younger seniors have shown a greater appetite for vaccines than their older peers. Initially, the opposite was true, as governments sent inoculation teams into nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. Recently, the numbers have flipped, adding support to the idea that some elderly residents -- especially those outside structured-living arrangements -- are simply having trouble navigating the system.".I can't find my glasses..Under current law, the Medicare program excludes coverage of most routine and emergency dental care, including cleanings, fillings, root canals, and extractions. As a result, around 70 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are left without comprehensive dental insurance coverage. The Medicare Dental Benefit Act would correct this to ensure that seniors have access to essential health care. Will you cosponsor this important bill?.Representatives Donna E. Shalala, Phil Roe, M.D., Ann McLane Kuster, and Larry Bucshon M.D. have introduced legislation to eliminate out-of-pocket costs for vaccines to everyone under Medicare. Currently, Medicare vaccine coverage is split between Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D. Seniors can access vaccines covered under Part B - such as flu, pneumonia and Hepatitis - with no out-of-pocket costs. However, under Part D, vaccines such as shingles and pertussis often include a cost to beneficiaries..Social Security's combined Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds will be fully funded until 2035 one year later than was projected in last year's report. At that point, if nothing is done by Congress, Social Security would still have the funds to pay out 80 percent of scheduled benefits using tax revenues alone. The Trustees also estimated that Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be fully funded until 2026, at which point the program would still be able to pay out almost 90 percent of scheduled benefits using tax revenues..With Medicare Part B premiums growing several times faster than COLAs, premiums routinely offset a significant portion of the annual inflation boost. This, in turn, causes retired households to draw down savings more rapidly than planned, and many retired households to carry growing amounts of debt. Lower income households may go without adequate food, medically necessary health services, and to postpone filling prescriptions..In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the first generation of drugs was mediocre at best, he said. As scientists learned more about the virus and the disease it causes, the medicines became more effective. That may be a model for what we are going to have here. We may not get the best vaccine up front. But hopefully it will be good enough and will be replaced later by better vaccines. We have may just have to live with that until we get a better one..Shop your local farmers' markets, and growers. Until you've sampled just - picked local fruits and vegetables, you really haven't tasted produce at its peak. Not only will you find better quality and better tasting produce, often grown organically, you'll find better prices too, especially when there's a glut and the grower has limited storage space. August, for example, is your best time to stock up on tomatoes, beans, corn, squash, cucumbers, peppers, melons and eggplant..If signed into law, the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act would amend the Social Security Act with regard to the annual cost-of-living-adjustment Social Security beneficiaries receive. Currently, the COLA is based upon the spending patterns of young, urban workers as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics the CPI for Urban Wage Earners. This legislation would calculate the COLA based on the spending patterns of seniors, or by using the BLS tracked CPI-E.
