What you can do: Contact your Members of Congress and tell them that cutting the COLA to reduce the deficit is unacceptable. To provide income seniors can rely on over a retirement, COLAs needs to keep up with rising costs, something they don't do well enough now. .There's an old saying: "Laws are like sausages; it is better not to see them being made." .Specialty-tier drugs are defined by Medicare, as those that cost more than 0 per month in 2019, and include drugs used to treat cancer, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis (MS), and rheumatoid arthritis. Even when Part D enrollees reach the Medicare Part D catastrophic coverage phase, when co-insurance drops to 5%, beneficiaries who take these drugs can continue to face thousands of dollars in annual out-of-pocket costs, according to the Kaiser study. The study found that annual out-of-pocket costs for specialty drugs in 2019 are expected to average ,994 across the 28 specialty-tier drugs that are covered by drug plans. .In March, the Trump administration paused routine nursing home inspections, which typically occur about once a year. Instead, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) asked that state agencies focus on inspecting facilities for their infection control practices, such as whether staff wash their hands or properly wear protective clothing before tending to multiple patients. .The Medicare Trustees estimated in their April 2020 annual report that the base 2021 Part B premium would rise by .70 (6 percent), from 4.60 to 3.30.[1] The annual report was written prior to the coronavirus national emergency and does not incorporate the effects of the coronavirus caused recession, the interaction with an extremely low COLA. .Congress has a number of options to pay for the higher benefits that drew strong support in our 2020 Senior Survey: .If you have symptoms of COVID-19, follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines, and speak to your medical provider. Your health care provider will advise you about whether you should get tested and the process for being tested in your area. .May Signal Zero COLA for 2016 .Johnson says that the federal government is looking at the wrong market basket to determine the annual change in prices in the goods and services used by retired and disabled Americans. According to Johnson, had the government used a more appropriate inflation index that measures costs experienced by people age 62 and older, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), retirees would get a COLA of 2.1 percent instead of 0.3 percent in 201"But instead, the COLA is based on the increased price of goods normally purchased by younger working adults," she notes.