For information about town hall meetings near you in the days ahead, call the local offices of your elected officials. For contact information, click HERE. .Once the costs that both you and your drug plan have paid exceed the above limit, then you will pay 25% co-insurance for brand drugs in 2019, and your drug plan will pay 5%. There's a manufacturer discount of 70%. For generics, you will pay 37% and plans pay 63%. This phase of coverage — which is called the "doughnut hole" or coverage gap —lasts until you have a spent a total of ,100 out-of-pocket on prescription costs. Please note that what you pay in premiums does not count toward out-of-pocket costs. Once you have spent ,100, which counts the manufacturer discount portion of the drug cost in the doughnut hole, then you reach the Part D catastrophic threshold. Medicare pays 80%, plans pay 15% and enrollees pay the greater of either 5% of total drug costs or .40/.50 for each generic/brand-name drug respectively. .First, on the payroll tax, he delayed payroll tax collections for those making under 4,000. President Trump instructed the U.S. Treasury to halt collection of payroll taxes from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31 for workers who earn under less than ,000 every two weeks (that's people earning under about 4,000 a year). The President has the authority to do this because it is not actually a tax cut, but rather a tax deferral, which will, as we said, have to be repaid by workers at a later date. .In a letter of support for the bill, Ed Cates – TSCL's Chairman – wrote: "As you know, Social Security beneficiaries today are struggling to keep up with rising costs. Our research shows that seniors have lost over 20 percent of their purchasing power since 2000, and last year, their benefits increased by while their expenses jumped by nearly 0. These are clear signs that the COLA is growing too slowly." .The cuts were buried in a "must pass" debt limit bill that provided essential funding for more than 60 million recipients of Social Security and other federal benefits. Even though the Social Security Trust Fund is the single largest government account which is holding government debt, legislation is required to ensure repayment of even the smallest fraction of the .8 trillion the government owes to the Social Security Trust Fund. .Every day approximately ten thousand people reach their retirement age. Many have spent a lifetime working to care for their families and save for retirement all while paying federal taxes. The taxes paid into Social Security and Medicare have helped make these programs successful for past generations of retirees. .The absence of confirmed transmission is not necessarily evidence that fliers are safe. Instead, the lack of data reflects the fact that the U.S. has a higher infection rate relative to other countries, said Chen. Since the U.S. has so many confirmed cases, it's more difficult to determine exactly where somebody contracted the virus. ​ .Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. .TSCL would like to thank Reps. Mike McIntyre (NC-7), G.K. Butterfield (NC-1), and Charles Gonzalez (TX-20) for taking the time to discuss the issues that are most important to our members and supporters. TSCL also met with Jeremy House, Legislative Assistant to Rep. Butterfield, Conrad Risher, Legislative Assistant to Rep. Gonzalez, Tommy Walker, Legislative Assistant to Rep. Diana DeGette (CO-1), Rebecca Shaw, Legislative Assistant to Rep. Chris Gibson (NY-20), and Nathaniel Ferguson, Legislative Assistant to Rep. Scott Rigell (VA-2).