The following Members of Congress, among many others, will be holding town hall meetings this week: Sen. Michael Crapo (ID), Sen. Jerry Moran (KS), Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX-4), Rep. Gus Bilirakis (FL-12), Rep. Bradley Byrne (AL-1), Rep. Tom Cole (OK-4), Rep. Tom Emmer (MN-6), Rep. Tom Graves (GA-14), Rep. Doug LaMalfa (CA-1), Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-4), Rep. Susan Brooks (IN-5), and Rep. Robert Pittenger (NC-9). .Democrats have delayed the start of the program in part because of its cost and an agreement to limit the overall spending in the Biden budget bill to .5 trillion. There is some talk on Capitol Hill of offering seniors limited vouchers to use toward dental benefits before 2028 as a compromise. .Nationwide, the picture is equally bleak, with more than 60 million Americans at risk of losing access to the rural hospitals that serve their families. What's worse – in order to prevent rural hospitals from closing under a Medicare-for-all regime, Medicare would have to increase hospital payments up to 60% higher than current Medicare rates. .The Scott bill passed the Education and Labor Committee on Tuesday of this week. It has a different approach for dealing with surprise bills that limits the arbitration process and sets forth a benchmark payment rate. Scott's bill would force doctors to accept a benchmark rate for bills under 0 and go through arbitration in disputes over bills higher than 0. .While hold harmless provides valuable protection from reductions in benefits due to rising Part B costs, low inflation and high Medicare costs restrict the growth of net Social Security benefits. This occurs when Part B increases take the entire COLA. This leaves less Social Security income to cover all other rising costs such as out-of-pocket medical expenses, food and housing, requiring people to spend more of their retirement savings or to go into debt. .This is a much longer legislative update than usual but there is a lot of information about the pricing of prescription drugs that we believe is important for you to know and that you might be interested in. .According to the report, the triggering of hold harmless will continue on an individual basis, particularly when inflation is lower than forecast (about 2.4 percent) or if Medicare Part B premium increases are higher than forecast (5%), or both. The risk for both is high, because over the past 8 years COLAs have averaged just 1.2 percent and since 2000 Medicare Part B premiums have increased on average more than 10 percent per year. According to the report, individuals with the lowest benefits, 0 or less, are the most likely to be affected by hold harmless on an individual basis over the next decade, even in years when a COLA is payable, particularly if Medicare Part B premium increases are higher than expected. .This week, one House Subcommittee heard from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) about its most recent report to Congress, which was titled Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System. In addition, the 2013 recovery estimate was released for the Senior Medicare Patrol, and The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) saw support grow for two key bills. .Now there is a lobbying effort to make sure enough money is provided for those programs because without sufficient funding states could choose not to take the money and leave their Medicaid programs running as is.