Medicare Rates Set to Soar for Many Seniors

Wall Street Journal ^ | 15 October 2015 | Stephanie Armour And Anne Tergesen

[oh8eleven]

About 30% of the roughly 52 million people enrolled in Part B could see a 52% rise in those premiums if Congress and the Obama administration don’t find a way to freeze or reduce the increase.

New beneficiaries, those with high incomes and Medicare recipients who don’t get Social Security would be hit with the increase. For them, the standard Part B premium would rise about $55 a month, or about $650 a year.

[oh8eleven]

I won't be paying the Medicare increase, but I will still pay about $110 a month for Medicare. Additionally, my Medicare Advantage plan premium will be increasing by 100%. Two years ago it was zero($0), last year $25, this year $44, next year $90. Thanks Øbama.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Barry and the ‘RATS need to find a way to pay for all of the free stuff for the Xenos and “refugees” they’re importing into America. Somebody needs to go to jail.

[Vaquero]

Well we do have to care for the bums and the illegals. Only fair (sarc)

[babble-on]

Why should a Republican Congress do anything to stop this?

[Dustoff45]

It really irked me when I turned that age that qualified me for all senior discounts, and learned that though I was paying for my own health plan out of pocket, NOW...

Medicare is my primary by law and I never had a choice. And they say premiums will increase. Seniors living on a shoestring have this mandatory medicare payment hanging over their head.

For a healthy senior trying to pay their own way, Medicare is a tax burden mandated by the Feds, not a blessing.

[oh8eleven]

Excellent point - illegal aliens and life’s losers get everything for free. Meanwhile, Americans who’ve worked their @sses off for 30-50 years get whacked again and again and ...

[dfwgator]

They want to break it, so we get Single-Payer.

[oh8eleven]

Why should a Republican Congress do anything to stop this?
If you're suggesting they adapt the Lib philosophy of "never letting a good crisis go to waste," I agree.
The GOP (especially the Prez contenders) should be on TV non-stop reminding America that ALL of the failed gov't programs like Medicare, Medicaid, SS, ØbamaCare, etc., are all Democrat programs.

[babble-on]

Completely. Whatever badness this situation contains is Obama’s fault, without any ambiguity.

[babble-on]

Completely. Whatever badness this situation contains is Obama’s fault, without any ambiguity.

[Arm_Bears]

Because they will be blamed—regardless of the facts—by the DIMS and the media.

[justlurking]

This is an interesting problem: Medicare starts at age 65, but "full benefit" Social Security doesn't start until as late as age 67, depending on when you were born.

But, if you retired before age 67 and have retiree health care from your employer, most of them REQUIRE that you join Medicare at age 65, and the retiree health care plan becomes "secondary". If I understand the article, these folks (plus the ones that choose to wait as late as age 70 to start SS benefits) will bear the brunt of the increase.

I wonder if anyone has done an analysis to determine if there is an advantage to starting their Social Security benefits earlier, to avoid the premium increase? For some people, the lower SS benefit may be offset by the freezing of Medicare premiums -- especially if this problem occurs in multiple consecutive years.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I’m dreading to see next year’s copays.

[GailA]

2017 illegals start receiving SS/Medicare.

2016 NO COLA RAISES for Seniors or Ret. Military. Despite the cost of basic foods rising at least 12%. Milk now cost more per gal than a gal of gas. Beef is being RATIONED by seniors and those on fixed incomes because of the high price of it. Dairy will be next. It is already rationed in our house.

Our medicine co-pays went up this year. We are both Medicare/Tricare Life, which means the Feds control our health care already. Many test are now 2 years apart, that should be yearly, some medicines are turned down, as are some testing a doctor might order. They have to check with Both agencies to see if what they want is covered.

[GailA]

Depends on the year you were born. If you were born in 1948, you have to be 66 to receive full SS/Medicare benefits, unless you were on SS/Medicare disability...then it just rolls over to regular SS/Medicare when you turn 66. I went through that at 66, wondered why it did not occur at 65 as was the former norm. They are shooting for age 70 or higher. Hoping more of us will die off sooner and they get to keep the money we paid in.

[oh8eleven]

if there is an advantage to starting their Social Security benefits earlier, to avoid the premium increase?
If you're not on SS or Medicare how would you even know about a future premium increase?
Another question - if straight Medicare covers about 80% of a subscriber's medical costs, why not throw in the "missing" 20% and cover it all?
And - why are some Advantage and (especially) Supplemental plans so expensive if they're only covering that missing 20%?

[plain talk]

do you have supplemental insurance to cover what medicare doesn’t cover? just curious how much that increased.

[justlurking]

Depends on the year you were born. If you were born in 1948, you have to be 66 to receive full SS/Medicare benefits, unless you were on SS/Medicare disability...

I'm not sure what you situation was, but Medicare starts at age 65 for most people:

[Medicare] Eligibility & Premium Calculator

Social Security eligibility is separate, and the age of "full benefit" has been increasing 2 months for every year one is born after 1938, until 1960:

[Social Security] Benefits By Year Of Birth

[I want the USA back]

Nice going, communist bastards in this administration!

[bert]

I have similar but not identical numbers

My monthly medicare advantage premiums rose from $33 to $39 or 18%

But my maximum out of pocket decreased from $6,700 to $5900 or 13%

There is no logic that I can see but the numbers are numbers

there are other increases to co pays for hospital stays etc