Every year the U.S. Treasury "gives" people like my dad a token adjustment to their Social Security checks. It's called a Cost Of Living Adjustment and, since our government was founded on the basis of acronyms, it's sometimes referred to as a COLA, as in Coca- (R). You might think the adjustment is given to stave off inflation but you'd be incorrect. Since the amount of the COLA falls well short of the rate of inflation and the actual cost of living for most people in this country, one can only conclude that the COLA's true purpose is "to make it appear as though the U.S. government cares about the people who receive these increases."My dad's income is low enough he must rely on help through Medicare and Medi-Cal to meet his ever-increasing medical expenses. The Medi-Cal program has varying levels of eligibility for different income levels, but the laws that calculate these levels have not been fully updated in more than a decade. That puts my dad's modest Social Security income at a level where a very high share of cost (SOC) is required out of pocket before Medi-Cal pitches in to help. It's the state's way of saying, "We'll help you afford that (medical expense you can't afford) as long as you pay most of it yourself FIRST. Oh, sorry if you can't afford to do that." The dirty secret is that this arrangement ends up saving Medi-Cal lots of money, because if a person can't pay the SOC Medi-Cal doesn't pay any part of it either. But it also means people end up not getting medical attention or care they need. My dad is in this situation on a monthly basis. If his income was only slightly lower he would have no share of cost and Medi-Cal would cover every last cent. Under current Medi-Cal rules, every dollar over a certain limit raises his share of cost.
Which brings us back to the COLA. Every time the government gives my dad a small raise to cover the cost of living every last cent of it has to be applied to his share of cost, essentially making the adjustment worthless, as if the adjustment never happened. You might think this sounds completely insane, or that somehow I have it all wrong, there must be some mistake; how can it possibly be this way? Sadly it's true, and one of the many reasons existing laws are inadequate and need to be changed.
