This week, four new cosponsors signed on to the bipartisan Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act (H.R. 711), bringing the total up to 11The new cosponsors are Reps. Don Young (AK-1), Carlos Curbelo (FL-26), Brenda Lawrence (MI-14), and Erik Paulsen (MN-3). .The bill would provide seniors with vision benefits in 2022, hearing benefits in 2023 and some dental benefits by 202Progressives are pushing for an earlier start to the dental benefits and that the government increase its share of the cost, which ramps up to 50% by 2032. .The Drug Plan Finder can help you get very specific information because you can input the prescriptions you currently use and then find the lowest cost plan that covers your drugs. However, the lowest cost plan may not always be your wisest choice, especially since your doctor may change your prescriptions in the future or you may be close to the doughnut hole coverage gap. You may benefit by spending a little more and getting a plan that covers 95% of all drugs and covers at least generics in the gap. .The Senior Citizens League encourages its supporters to attend these events and to ask important questions of their elected officials, like the following four… .Both Social Security and Medicare have come under intense scrutiny for benefit cuts in recent years of deficit reduction negotiations. Immigration proponents say that immigration reform would boost the payroll taxes flowing to both programs and prolong program solvency. Critics, including TSCL, say that giving hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants new access to Social Security would boost long-term costs far more than the 2-year estimated gain in solvency that the Social Security program would receive. Under current law the government continues to calculate entitlement and the amount of the initial benefit based on all earnings, even for jobs worked under invalid or even fraudulent Social Security numbers prior to gaining legal work authorization. .On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing to discuss improvements to the Medicare payment system. Currently, reimbursements are determined by the SGR, a flawed formula that regularly calls for steep pay cuts to physicians and threatens seniors' access to medical care. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed a strong interest in repealing and replacing the formula in the coming months. .In addition, the proposal calls for more than 0 billion in Medicare cuts to hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and pharmaceutical companies. These cuts could lead to staff reductions, and seniors could see changes in their access to quality care. .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. .Here's where to go for help with these services: