Sources: "Preliminary Estimate of the Budgetary Effects of Using the Chained CPI Starting in 2014," Congressional Budget Office, March 1, 2013. .2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series, like the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or .This week, TSCL announced its support for three new bills: the Social Security Safety Dividend Act (H.R. 67), the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (S. 41, H.R. 242), and the Safe and Affordable Drugs from Canada Act (S. 64). .A major reason that the COLA is so low is the consumer price index that the government uses to calculate the increase. Under current law, the COLA is tied to the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). That index surveys the spending patterns of younger working adults and does not include the market basket of goods and services that is more typical of people age 62 and over. The CPI-W gives greater weight to goods and services that younger workers spend more on, like gasoline prices and electronics, which have dramatically dropped in price over the past two years. It gives less weight to housing and medical expenses even though those two categories have experienced bigger price jumps over the past two years, and are the two biggest spending categories for older consumers. .Medicare Part D is a rip off. My wife and I will pay more for our medication now, because we cannot afford to take the risk of not enrolling. We were getting most of our drugs from Canada, but under Part D we not only have to pay a monthly premium, but also have co-pays, plus much higher prices for our medication to meet the deductible or if we hit the doughnut hole. Forcing us to do this is simply not fair. What happened to the legislation to legalize the importation of drugs from Canada? .On Thursday, a group of four Senators – Rand Paul (KY), Mike Lee (UT), Lindsey Graham (SC), and Jim DeMint (SC) – unveiled a major new plan to transition Medicare enrollees into the same health care program offered to employees of the federal government, including Members of Congress. According to the group, the plan will "provide Medicare patients with the best health care in America and will forever protect seniors' interests by aligning them with self-interested politicians." .TSCL opposes these cuts for a number of reasons. Medical practices in particular have been hurt by the pandemic and should not have to face lower Medicare reimbursements. .Recently we learned of a woman, now in her 80's, who has moved twice in the past decade to be close to her daughter. Her first move was from the family home in Connecticut to an up-scale retirement community in Virginia, and more recently following her daughter to Arizona after her son-in-law's job changed. Her former Virginia home has been sitting on the market for months. That's posing a drain on her resources, adding unanticipated costs for new housing at a time when her need for caregiving services is growing. Her daughter worried that the former facility wasn't handling things well. .It is not clear what implications, if any, the findings might have for the two other major vaccines being used in the U.S., Pfizer's and Moderna's.