Each month, due to the Social Security Act Amendments that were signed into law in 1977, more than 3.7 million Notch babies receive Social Security checks that are lower than the benefits they originally anticipated. Last year, Representative Mike McIntyre (NC-7) introduced the Notch Fairness Act, a bill that would provide modest compensation to those who were born in the Social Security Notch, or those years between 1917 and 192Even though TSCL lobbies aggressively in favor of the Notch Fairness Act, many Members of Congress believe that the bill's passage is unlikely this year because it would add approximately .9 billion to a growing deficit. To offset the cost of the Notch Fairness Act, we've come up with three fair and responsible options that we hope Congress will consider. First, Congress could increase efforts to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. .The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the number of beneficiaries that will be required to pay the increased Medicare premiums will almost triple over the next decade rising from five percent of beneficiaries in 2011 to 14 percent in 2019 due to the expansions of "means testing" in the PPACA. By 2019 one out of every five new enrollees will have to pay higher premiums. The Senior Citizens League strongly opposes the "means test" and supports efforts to repeal it. To learn more, please visit . .Should lawmakers fail to reach an agreement before midnight on Friday, April 28th, a federal government shutdown will occur. TSCL hopes that Congress will avert a shutdown since Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries would see negative impacts if one were to occur. We will be monitoring the negotiations closely in the coming hours and days and will post progress updates on Twitter. .The stockpile had 13 million medical-quality N-95 masks when the pandemic hit. The government aspires to have 1 billion, with 300 million anticipated by fall. It had 2 million gowns at the start of the pandemic and expects that to grow to as many as 7 million. . Lisa Kiplinger, USA TODAY 8:41 a.m. EDT June 27, 2016 .In April, lawmakers on the Republican Study Committee proposed a budget blueprint that would have reformed the Medicare program and cut Social Security benefits by adopting the "chained" CPI, eliminating the COLA for some seniors, and raising the eligibility age. Did you support this budget blueprint, and if so, why? .The report found similar price disparities in expensive specialty drugs that treat complicated conditions like cancer. . Contact your doctor's office and alert them to this dilemma. Ask if they have emergency samples of Lantus and your blood pressure medicine that they can provide, or if they can give you the contact number of programs that can help you. .The study says the program would have saved 7 million that year if generics had been substituted for all the brand-name medicines requested by prescribers. Additionally, if Medicare patients had sought generics instead of brand-name drugs, Medicare Part D would have saved another 3 million.