In 2016 your Part B premium would be 1.80 per month if your family income is under 0,000. (If income is higher beneficiaries pay higher Medicare Part B and Part D premiums.) In addition you will need to decide whether to purchase a Medigap supplement and enroll in a Part D plan for drug coverage, or to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan that includes Part D coverage. .The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a huge toll on nursing homes, leading to large numbers of residents and staff becoming become ill or dying. We hope that such catastrophes may help focus attention on long-term problems that plague these facilities. .Get unbiased counseling. NEVER, EVER drop your Medicare supplemental or switch Medicare Advantage plans based solely on the sales pitch of an insurance agent! This is especially true if the agent is trying to pitch you from a table set up in a discount store, or pharmacy window. DO NOT do business at all with anyone who calls on the phone or knocks on your door, regardless of who they say they are. There have been very widespread reports of con artists who tell seniors they are calling from Medicare or Social Security. You have no safe way of confirming who they are. Don't respond. Hang up and keep your doors locked! .For each visitor to our website, The Senior Citizens League collects only the domain name and aggregate information on what pages are visited. This information is used to help improve the content and ease of use of our website. .Other Goods and Services: (tobacco and smoking products, haircuts and other personal services, funeral expenses). .On Thursday, The Senior Citizens League estimated that Social Security beneficiaries will receive a 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in 2019, based on consumer price index (CPI) data through August. The official 2019 Social Security COLA will be announced next week – on Thursday, October 11th – following the release of the September CPI data. .Between age 55 and 64, it's as if our body's warranty expires and everything just crashes. By the time we turn 65 and eligible for Medicare, chances are we may have a chronic health condition that requires regular check-ups. Often, it's insidiously hard to tell whether a problem really is serious or whether it's just a "natural part of growing older," which in any case feels just as crummy. . Contact your doctor's office and alert them to this dilemma. Ask if they have emergency samples of Lantus and your blood pressure medicine that they can provide, or if they can give you the contact number of programs that can help you. .While very little of the President's budget blueprint for fiscal 2015 will be considered by those in the House and Senate, it does serve as an important benchmark for lawmakers. Members of the House Budget Committee are expected to unveil a proposal of their own in the coming weeks. In a statement made early this week, Speaker John Boehner (OH-8) said that it will "promote opportunity, reform our tax code, and save our critical safety net programs." TSCL will continue to monitor the budget negotiations as they evolve, and we will provide updates here in the Legislative News section of our website.