TSCL has been successful in gaining co-sponsors for legislation to address Notch reform. The Notch Fairness Act, introduced in House and Senate by Representative Mike McIntyre (NC-17) and Senator David Vitter (LA) would provide Notch Babies born 1917 through 1926 their choice of ,000 paid in four annual installments, or an improved monthly benefit. As of June 30, seventeen Members of Congress had signed on as co-sponsors. One new cosponsor said he was signing on to The Notch Fairness Act in honor of his father a Notch baby who recently passed away. .Meanwhile, Republicans argued that Medicare should not be expanded when its hospital fund is already slated to be insolvent in 2026. .The CBO said earlier this year that if the Congress did not take action to address the shortfalls, the balances in the two trust funds would be exhausted within the next 10 years: Medicare's Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund (in fiscal year 2024), and Social Security's Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund (in fiscal year 2026) .Last year, I introduced bipartisan legislation to halt this obscure tax increase on seniors. Since then, we've worked hard to build broad support inside of Congress and out. The bill has the endorsement of a list of taxpayer and seniors advocacy groups and passed the U.S. House of Representatives on a bipartisan vote on September 13, 2016. .Key Bill Gains Cosponsors .One-out-of-five people who participated in TSCL Senior Survey spend more than 0.00 per month out-of-pocket on prescription drugs. That's an enormous amount, considering the average Social Security benefit is just ,460.00 per month. But even if you only take generics, or your Medicare drug or health plan premium goes down, this does not mean that your 2020 Medicare plan's drug coverage costs will also decrease. Your Medicare drug plan's prescription coverage – including which drugs are covered by your plan, and the cost, usually changes every year. .You will want to sign up for both Part A (hospital insurance) and Medicare Part B (doctor's and outpatient insurance.) Medicare Part A usually does not cost anything since the Medicare payroll taxes withheld from workers' paychecks pay for Part A. Currently the base premium for Medicare Part B (for individuals with incomes less than ,000) is 5.50 per month. Medicare will send you a bill for three months at a time. You will need 6.50 for that first bill, and please note how quickly you must send it back (usually before the end of the month you received your bill.) There are several ways to pay. If you would prefer monthly billing, you may request that, but after you send in your first payment. Carefully read the information on your monthly bill to learn what you will need to do in order to request monthly billing. .You can learn more about Social Security disability benefits at https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/disability/. Find information about when to start retirement benefits here: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/learn.html h3. .By Representative Gloria Negrete McLeod (CA-35)