"To put it in perspective, for every 0 worth of groceries a retiree could afford in 2000, they can only buy worth today," Johnson notes. To help protect the buying power of benefits, The Senior Citizens League supports legislation that would provide a modest boost in benefits and base COLAs on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E) or guarantee a COLA no lower than 3 percent. In addition The League has recently launched a campaign for a ,400 stimulus check to help Americans struggling to cope with high inflation. To learn more about these initiatives, visit . .Finally, one new cosponsor – Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT) – signed on to the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act (S. 99), bringing the cosponsor total up to eight. If adopted, this bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prescription drug prices on behalf of Medicare Part D beneficiaries. .Surprise! A new Part D plan drug pricing program may lower costs for those who seek out the savings. Recent Congressional scrutiny on drug pricing may be spurring some drug plans to drop prices on certain drugs. A new drug plan pricing program offered by Cigna, for example, lowers the cost of insulin. In 2018, the lowest cost Part D plan charged an copay for a 100/ML of Lantus Solostar. In 2019, the lowest cost plan in my area charges copays as low as .00 - .00 for Lantus Solostar in the Cigna-HealthSpring Rx Secure — Extra Part D plan. The highest cost plan, which does not cover Lantus, charges the full price, 3.18 per 100/ML. Which would you rather have? .The Senior Citizens League is pleased that leaders in Washington have temporarily reopened the federal government, and we are hopeful that they will act responsibly in the days ahead to ensure that it remains fully funded. We will continue to monitor the negotiations closely in the coming days, and we will post updates here in the Legislative News section of our website. .Recent vaccines targeting more limited populations, such as a meningitis B vaccine for college students and the shingles vaccine for older adults, have a retail cost of 0 to 0 for a full course. . What does it mean when a Member of Congress says he favors changing Medicare from a "fee-for-service" model to one where the patients would pay based on health outcomes? Is he suggesting that Medicare should stop covering treatments if the patient can't or doesn't improve? .Sources: "How Much ‘Skin In The Game' Is Enough?", Kaiser Family Foundations, June 201"Measuring Price Change For Medical Care In The CPI," Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed March 3, 2012. .The orders were issued on a Friday which left little time for analysts to review them and comment prior to the weekend. However, since then we have learned new information, we want to share with you. .At the same time, new claims for Social Security benefits are growing, as many older workers who have lost jobs file for Social Security benefits earlier than planned. The combined impact increases pressure on Social Security to address solvency issues. A future solvency option supported by more than 72 percent of The Senior Citizens League's survey participants is to apply the Social Security payroll tax to all earnings, instead of just the first 7,700 in wages. The survey was conducted from mid - January through April of this year.