Legislative Update: COLA Fallout

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Legislative Update: COLA Fallout

Members of Congress received a 3.1% pay raise of $4,700 in 2003. Seniors, though, received a meager 1.4% benefit increase. Annual Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) simply no longer do what they are supposed to be doing—that is, to protect benefits from rising costs.

None of this has been lost on TSCL members. You tell us:

“With a 1.4% COLA and a Medicare raise of 8.7% I get a raise of exactly one dollar. A dollar raise! What can I buy with that? That doesn’t even cover one pill at today’s rates.”
“They did it again! Social Security recipients received a pittance and Congress gave themselves a whopping $4,700 increase. The same week that I learned my COLA would go up just 1.4% I was also notified that my electric and water rates were going up. In addition, I have huge new insurance copayments and my prescription drug allowance was reduced by $300. This was one tiny step forward and four giant steps backward.”
“The 1.4% COLA for Social Security is really a joke when the Medicare premium has gone up 8.7% and Congress votes themselves a 3.1% pay raise. I have often wondered why taxpayers can’t vote on the raises that Congress always give themselves. I think it’s time for Americans to say ‘enough is enough.’”

Without legislation to correct it, TSCL expects the COLA problem to continue. Recently, Senator Don Nickles (R-OK), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, called upon Congress to consider finding savings from government benefit programs, including Social Security and Medicare. TSCL believes there will be continued initiatives that could cut your COLAs, as well as efforts that could increase Medicare deductibles and add new copayments. Although the new Congress has promised a prescription drug benefit, it remains unclear how it would be paid for without making draconian cuts or raising fees in other parts of the program.

What do you think about the COLA and health care costs? Your Member of Congress needs to know! Please tell your Member of Congress how you are affected by drug and health care costs, and how inadequate your COLA is in protecting your benefit. Urge your Member of Congress to support legislation that would provide a more fair COLA to seniors.

Source: “Budget Panel Chairman Eyes Savings,” Alan Fram, “The Associated Press,” December 5, 2002.

To read more on this issue see, “Ask The Advisor: Why Don’t Seniors Get the Same COLA as Members of Congress?” at http://www.tscl.org/NewContent/101403.asp.

March 2003