To strengthen Social Security and Medicare, 84% of respondents strongly agreed that Congress should focus on getting Americans back to work. Jobs and the payroll taxes paid by people during their working years finance the benefits received by today's Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries. While jobs were the top deficit fix, only 11% agree with cutting the Social Security payroll tax as a means to generate employment. Congressional leadership and the President are battling over spending cuts and higher taxes that will be needed to avoid hitting a "fiscal cliff" by the end of this year. .Fortunately, H.R. 3 is not the only legislation in either house of Congress that could lower drug prices and accomplish the other things necessary to fix Medicare and Social Security. .Often, consumers don't even know they signed such an agreement because the clauses are buried in the fine print. .But 2 million retirees receiving Social Security benefits of less than 0 per month in 2018, won't see an increase after the deduction for their Medicare Part B premiums. Part B premiums will increase by more than .50, for this group of retirees because they are paying less than the current Part B premium of 4 today. This is due to the effects of the Social Security "hold harmless" provision. .An Ohio physician ordered more than 400 drugs each for 13 of his 665 patients. In total, this physician ordered 50,430 drugs dispensed by 100 pharmacies in 18 states. .The Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 574) also gained a cosponsor – Rep. Pete Gallego (TX-23) – this week, bringing the total up to thirty-five. If signed into law, H.R. 574 would repeal and replace the SGR, bringing increased stability to the Medicare program for both physicians and beneficiaries. .TSCL enthusiastically supports the bills mentioned above, and we were pleased to see support grow for each of them this week. .Medicaid is a federal and state healthcare program for low - income people. By law, the federal government pays no less than 50% of the costs, and states pay the balance. For the poorest states, the federal portion can be as high as 73%. .The bill would limit price increases in drugs covered by Medicare Part D plans to the rate of inflation or drug makers would be forced to pay a penalty in the form of a rebate. "Since Social Security benefits only grow at the rate of inflation, it would help level the playing field if the cost of prescription medications were required to be adjusted in like fashion," Johnson notes. Research on typical retiree costs conducted by Johnson has found that from 2000 to 2019, annual cost – of – living adjustments (COLAs) increased Social Security benefits by 50 percent but spending on prescription drugs grew five times faster — 253 percent — over the same period.