To see if your Members of Congress will be holding town hall meetings during the spring recess, click HERE or call their local offices. You can find contact information HERE. .Because of the advanced ages of Notch Babies, the cost of correcting the Notch is falling every day. TSCL estimates (in 2006) that the cost of Notch Reform would be about billion, or slightly less than .75 billion per year over the next four years. The billion could be financed without taking additional money from the Social Security Trust Fund. This could be done through cutting wasteful pork barrel spending and reducing fraud and abuse in government programs. In fiscal year 2006 alone, lawmakers spent about billion in pork-barrel projects (8). That doesn't include what the government lost to improper payments, fraud, and abuse. The Government Accountability Office estimated that for fiscal year 2005 government agencies improperly spent more than billion (9). .Your doctor or provider accepts "assignment" or the Medicare approved payment, as payment in full. There may be some doctors in your area that accept assignment, but fewer do that anymore. You will need to call your doctor to find out if he or she accepts assignment. Many are charging more than the Medicare-approved amount and you or your Medigap plan will need to cover the "excess" charges. Even if you do locate a doctor who accepts assignment, a growing number of doctors are not accepting new Medicare patients. To find a doctor who accepts assignment call the customer service number of your Medigap supplement. Then call the physician to find out if he or she is accepting new Medicare patients. .The savings to the government for switching to the more slowly-growing CPI compound over time, and are substantial. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the change would cut COLAs by 2 billion from 2012021 alone and, if used in other federal retirement programs and for indexing taxes as well, would reduce deficits by about 0 billion over the next decade, including reduced interest on the debt. ."This year's zero COLA combined with next year's insufficient increase will have a devastating impact on the long term adequacy of Social Security benefits for millions of Americans … we hope that you will act swiftly and responsibly before the end of this year," the letter stated. .The nation's pharmaceutical industry has pushed back against the potential order, arguing that the United States should not shut itself off from a global supply chain. .However, the ACA, also known as "Obamacare", already requires health insurers to cover pre-existing conditions. We are not sure why The President said what he did, except that his administration is in court trying to have the ACA declared unconstitutional, and maybe he anticipates a need for his order. .Earlier this year, a Congressional report referred to the AARP as a "massive for-profit enterprise" whose financial structure "conflicts with its legal requirements to ‘primarily operate to promote the common good and social welfare of a community of people.'" .The SSA and the AARP say, however, the Notch affects only those born during the five-year period of 1917 through 192Those born during that period were covered by a special transitional benefit formula, the purpose of which was to provide a 5-year phase-in for the new 1977 benefit formula.