Letter: Cost-of-living adjustment is inadequate

Thursday, Jan. 16, 2003 | 8:50 a.m.

A 1.3 percent Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2003?

In light of the co-payment for mail-order, brand-name, prescription drugs charged by my Medicare/HMO -- increasing a whopping 133 percent from $30 to $70 that was effective Jan. 1 -- and the grossly excessive pay raises proposed for certain state government employees here in Nevada (e.g., approaching 100 percent for justices of the peace), I consider this to be a bad joke and an insult to seniors and any other individuals living on a fixed income.

Taken together, such actions amount to little more than legally sanctioned robbery and exploitation of those who can least afford to bear such a burden.

This absolutely ridiculous COLA that does not even suffice to buy a sandwich ($6 monthly for myself and $4 monthly for my wife), magically disappears when it is consumed by the corresponding increase in Medicare premiums for 2003.

What is the legal or moral justification for this miniscule COLA for 2003?

If one considers the overall inappropriateness of Social Security COLAs over time, people on Social Security have been consistently getting shortchanged, not just in 2003.

ADOLPH KROPATSCHED