TSCL continues to work with Members of Congress for stronger protections of Social Security. TSCL supports legislation that would ban the payment of benefits based on illegal work — H.R. 787, "No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act," introduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher (CA-46), and S.95, legislation to prevent Social Security credit from being earned without legal status, introduced by Senator David Vitter (LA). .TSCL believes this type of mathematical gimmickry shortchanges the measurement of real cost increases, thereby shortchanging the COLAs of almost 58 million beneficiaries. Yet this is just one of many such changes since 198TSCL believes that the strongest protection Social Security recipients have against such machinations of benefits is legislation that would guarantee that COLAs would be no less than 3%. This could be paid for by lifting the Social Security taxable maximum so that high-income earners making more than 8,500 pay their fair share of taxes. This not only is fair, but would ensure more adequate benefits for all retirees. .Doughnut hole or coverage gap stage: 5.76. .However, support in the House has gone to two bills of the bills, both of which moved forward this week: HR 5826, sponsored by Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; and HR 5800, sponsored by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. While they each deal with the same issue the way they try to solve it is different. ."But the time is coming when the states and federal government will be under urgent pressure to cut Medicaid and Medicare costs," says TSCL Chairman, Larry Hyland. "TSCL is concerned that if states and the federal government don't design and implement the changes the right way, beneficiaries' may lose access to medically necessary care and quality." .With so many grandparents becoming more involved in the day – to - day care of their grandchildren you may learn that you qualify for other programs that can reduce healthcare, food, and other expenses. We recommend that you take time to try the National Council on Aging's online "BenefitsCheckUp" screening tool to learn about benefit programs in your area. .Finally, one new cosponsor – Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) – signed on to the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 1795) this week, bringing the total up to one hundred and fourteen. If signed into law, the bill would repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) – two federal provisions that unfairly reduce the earned Social Security benefits of millions of state and local government employees each year. .Last week there was major news concerning Social Security, Medicare, and prescription drug prices – or at least so it seemed. But "the devil is in the details" and we will try to sort it out for you below. ."Unfortunately for seniors and their families these extreme differences in cost are not unique," says Johnson. "Almost every Medicare beneficiary enrolled in a Part D drug or Medicare health plan can achieve savings if they carefully compare all their options every year and switch when they find better coverage," Johnson says. "All that's required is computer access, the Medicare Drug and Health Plan Compare tools on the Medicare website at www.medicare.gov and determination to give it a try," she notes.