Two Cosponsors Sign on to Key Bill .Visiting with an unvaccinated person who is at increased risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 or who lives with a person at increased risk .The Senior Citizens League enthusiastically supports the Social Security 2100 Act and we look forward to working with Congressman Larson in the 116th Congress to help build additional support for his critically important bill. For progress updates, follow The Senior Citizens League on Twitter or visit the Bill Tracking section of our website. .To qualify for Medicare coverage, beneficiaries must be an inpatient for at least 3 days in a row, not counting the day of discharge. What you can do: If admitted to a hospital, it's highly important that you, or your designated caregiver, find out immediately whether you are being admitted to the hospital as an inpatient or an outpatient. Even if you are admitted as an inpatient, the hospital can sometimes switch you to observation (and outpatient) status, but the hospital is required to notify you while you are still a patient. Should this happen to you, ask your caregiver to take steps to have the decision reversed while you are still a patient. .And, in case you had any doubts about why you need that Medicare Advantage plan in the first place, here are the general types of costs if you have Medicare Advantage plan coverage compared with having traditional Medicare with a Medigap supplement. .Give family recipe or ethnic specialty cooking lessons. As a child I learned how to make Pennsylvania German egg noodles from scratch from my grandmother. These were a highly treasured holiday gifts. My arms still ache remembering how long I had to roll the dough to get those noodles thin enough for my grandmother! Give out an invitation to special grandchildren or friends for lessons in making favorite traditional foods from scratch. .Unlike the experience of the general public who access state or federal health care exchanges to choose coverage, the choices offered to Members of Congress are dramatically different than those from many other parts of the nation. For 2017, Members had 57 plan options in "Gold" plans alone on the DC shop exchange. In many areas of the nation, particularly rural ones, Gold plans aren't even available. Unlike the Silver and Bronze level plans, Gold plans have lower deductibles, and cover 80% of costs with patients paying only 20%. Silver plans, for example, typically come with deductibles ranging from ,500 - ,000, and pay 70% of costs while patients pay the other 30%. And in some areas of the country, people are happy if they have a choice of more than six silver plans. Certain parts of the country have only one. .This Part B premium cost - shifting includes shifting those higher costs to state Medicaid budgets that pay the Part B premiums for low-income Medicare beneficiaries — which account for about 19 percent of all Medicare recipients. If this would occur in 2021, this would add yet another fiscal shock to state budgets that are already strained beyond anticipated budgets due to the coronavirus pandemic. .The 2% COLA will raise the average Social Security benefit (currently ,258) about But the overwhelming majority of Social Security recipients will never see it. Medicare Part B premiums for most people will rise considerably and completely offset the COLA increase, after being held at lower adjusted levels, as required by law, over the past two years when there was no COLA. This provision of law that protects Social Security benefits from reductions is known as the "hold harmless" provision.