In 2018, the Part B premium remained 4 per month. To cover that premium, Barbara, whose Part B premium was 8.00, needed a COLA of at least .00. That was more than the 2% COLA boosted her Social Security benefits. Once again her Part B premium was adjusted and in 2018 she pays a Part B premium of 7.00 per month. In 2019 her COLA will be high enough to catch up to the Part B premium of 5.50 and still leave a small boost for her net Social Security benefits. .The expert witnesses at the hearing focused their suggestions on improving the marketplace. Edmud Hailsmaier – Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation – said policymakers should change how they see the individual market. He said it should be thought of as two distinct pools which include (1) individuals wishing to be protected against the financial liability of large health expenses, and (2) those who are very sick and have no other insurance options. .Physicians should use only those tests that have been authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, of which there have been about 12 to date, the AMA said. Even then, they should only be used to determine how broadly the virus has moved through the population and for specific information like whether someone can donate convalescent plasma. .You can receive Social Security benefits and unemployment benefits at the same time. But depending on the state where you live, the unemployment benefit amount might be reduced by receipt of a pension or other retirement income like Social Security. .TSCL supports legislation that would get rid of the taxable wage cap and require all workers to pay their fair share into Social Security. .The last thing we need to happen to our healthcare system is to limit access to quality care. Already, 1-in-3 physicians are limiting the number of Medicare patients they see, and 1-in-8 physicians are refusing Medicare patients all together. Furthermore, the Affordable Care Act created the Independent Payment Advisory Board to control Medicare cost. This would place 15 bureaucrats, appointed by the president, in a position to control the future of Medicare and is another example of the Federal Government forcing themselves into your health care decisions. .In an interview this week, Rep. Charles Boustany (LA-3), who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, revealed that the negotiators have hit a road block. They are struggling to come up with an offset for the bill, which could cost as much as 3.2 billion. Rep. Boustany said, "We're running out of time. We may end up with another one-year patch before it's all over. But, you know, we'll keep working, see if we can get to something." TSCL sincerely hopes that those on the three committees will successfully merge their bills to create a permanent, sustainable path forward. We will keep a close eye on the evolving negotiations in the coming weeks, and we will continue to urge lawmakers to repeal and replace the SGR. .Because Medicare doesn't negotiate drug prices, there are huge variations in cost for the same drug between drug plans, and even between pharmacies in the same plan. The difference in drug prices between the lowest and highest costing plans and pharmacies can be in the hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars. The high cost of drugs are the single biggest reason that people don't fill a prescription! But the most frequent reason that a drug costs so much more in the highest costing plan is lack of coverage by the drug plan —the drug is not listed on the plan's formulary. Sometimes, the pharmacy is not in the plan's preferred "network", and even preferred pharmacies can have significantly higher costs. For example, the lowest cost plan for Sovaldi, a drug used to treat Hepatitis C, charges ,600 in co-insurance (for a one-year treatment). The highest cost drug plan charges 0,800, the full cost of the drug, because Sovaldi is not on the plan formulary. The lowest cost plan for Advair Diskus, which is used to control and prevent symptoms of pulmonary disease, charges a co-pay of .33 per month from a mail order pharmacy, or the highest cost plan charges 6.62 per month because the drug is not on the plan's formulary. .As we have written recently, Grassley's main problem in getting his bill passed in the Senate is opposition from his fellow Republicans. Grassley said he needs at least 25 Republican co-sponsors to get his bill (S. 2543) to the floor of the Senate for a vote. Ten Republicans other than Grassley have so far made public shows of support for the legislation.