A husband's death can mean enormous financial hardship for women. Under current law it generally means a big drop in Social Security income, going from two Social Security payments each month to just one. When the husband passes away, the widow gets a benefit that's 100% the amount the deceased spouse was entitled to, if higher than her own retirement benefit. For example, if the couple received a combined benefit of ,400 per month, and the husband's benefit is ,600, then the widow would just get the ,600 and lose her own 0 per month in benefits. .Nearly 50 years ago, we made a promise to ensure quality, affordable healthcare for all American seniors. In order to protect that promise, we must promote excellence and efficiency in Medicare, while being more fiscally responsible. One of the most important ways we can achieve those critical goals is to fix the broken Medicare physician payment system, which has created uncertainty and instability for seniors, healthcare providers, and the federal budget for decades. Because of the failed physician payment system, there is a looming crisis facing seniors and the doctors who care for them: on January 1, 2013 doctors could be hit with a scheduled reduction in Medicare payments of more than 30 percent. .To address this issue, my office put together a two-pronged approach both locally and nationally. First, we held a resources fair in South Los Angeles, focusing on identifying and combatting senior scams with service providers that offered direct assistance for attendees. Second, I introduced a bipartisan resolution to call attention to the barrage of fraud attempts that seniors face nationwide. .Starting a new medication can sometimes take you by surprise when drug plans don't cover the drug or charge higher co-pays than you can afford. If you're having trouble covering the cost of your medicine, here are some things to try: .The findings come as the nation finds itself in a growing a retirement crisis. Even before the coronavirus - caused recession, the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated that about 48 percent of households headed by people aged 55 and over had no retirement savings. That situation has been made even worse in 2020 and 2021 as older workers have lost jobs or seen their work schedules reduced due to the pandemic. .The suit is over Obama's executive actions on immigration announced last November. The executive actions would expand a program that protects immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Another major part of the orders would extend deportation protection and provide work-authorized Social Security numbers to illegal immigrants who are parents of children born in this country and who have lived in this country for some years. .On Wednesday, just hours before funding for the federal government was set to expire, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a shutdown like the one that occurred two years ago. The temporary fix will provide enough funding to last through December 11th. .The bill, which TSCL supports enthusiastically, was amended this week to include a pay-for that would cover the projected cost of its passage. Since the IPAB currently has no appointed members and it has not yet been triggered to begin making recommendations to Congress, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that its repeal will have no budgetary impact over the next six years. However, it could increase spending by around .1 billion between 2022 and 2025 since it may be triggered during that timeframe. ."We need to get committees working again. We need to recommit to a rational, functioning appropriations process," McConnell said on the floor of the Senate during the first full day of his Senate leadership. "We need to open up. the legislative process in a way that allows more amendments from both sides."