The diagnostics are designed to pick up signs that the human immune system has successfully fought the novel infection, a step many scientists believe will confer some measure of immunity. The AMA said given the uncertainties surrounding the tests -- including about their accuracy -- medical and safety decisions should not be made based on those assumptions. .If adopted, his bill would: provide beneficiaries with a 2 percent boost in benefits, improve the adequacy of the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) by basing it on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), create a new minimum benefit set at 125 percent of the poverty line, and cut taxes for millions of seniors who pay taxes on a portion of their Social Security benefits. The bill would also extend the solvency of the Trust Funds by applying the payroll tax to income over 0,000 and gradually increase the payroll tax rate from 6.2 percent to 7.4 percent. .The TSCL study looks at the costs of goods and services that are typically purchased by most Social Security recipients. This includes expenditures such as the Medicare Part B premium, which is not measured by the index currently used to calculate the COLA, yet is one of the fastest growing costs that retirees face. Of the 39 items analyzed, 27 exceeded the COLA while 14 were lower than the COLA. .Moving between retirement communities and facilities can be burdensome and costly. Here are four things to avoid when looking into retirement living: .This is a major blow to military retirees whose reasons for settling around a military base included getting the health care they were promised when they agreed to serve a career in the Armed Forces. .The hearing examined in particular the drug company AbbVie, which makes Humira and Imbruvica, two drugs widely used by seniors. .A new healthcare cost survey conducted in October 2011 by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) — one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups — found that the majority of seniors spent a very significant portion of their Social Security benefits in order to pay for healthcare. The survey asked for information about the out-of-pocket costs that respondents paid in the first six months of 2011, and for comments about how they were managing after two years of receiving no annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). .Before recommending the zero premiums, I helped Paula estimate potential costs. New managed care Medicare Advantage plans differ from traditional Medicare supplements by charging co-payments that can be substantial for each hospitalization, visit to the doctor, or other service received. Supplements tend to charge high premiums, but cover most, or all, of the co-insurance costs, leaving beneficiaries to pay little or nothing when they receive a service. If Paula had to be hospitalized or developed a serious illness, the co-payments charged by the Medicare Advantage plan could quickly add up to be just as much, possibly more, than what she would pay in premiums for her state retiree Medicare supplement. .Americans are anxious to get back to normal after over a year of being limited in their activities because of the pandemic. For many seniors, as well as others, that includes vacationing, and vacationing includes trips on cruise ships.