Relief For People With Medicare

[Stellar]

Seniors can breathe a sigh of relief today, as the final 2016 premiums and deductible for Medicare were announced. For about 70 percent of beneficiaries, premiums will not change -- staying at 2015's $104.90. And for the remaining beneficiaries, the standard premium will be $121.80 -- $37.50 less per month and $450 less for the year than the Medicare Trustees predicted over the summer.

The Part B deductible will be lower than the summer projections as well, at $166 total, or $57 less than predicted. Lastly, the States, which cover these costs for poor Medicare beneficiaries, are projected to save $1.8 billion according to the Medicare Actuaries.

This good news is all thanks to the agreement that President Obama and Congress came together to craft and make law just last week, called the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. This new law, in addition to providing stability to our economy and common sense to our budget process, spreads out the cost of maintaining the Medicare Trust Fund for doctors and outpatient services, or Part B. This change will prevent a sharp premium increase in 2016, as well as in 2017 if there is again no cost of living adjustment in Social Security.

The law also prevents overpayments for certain physician and surgical services performed outside of the hospital. As a result, taxpayers will save about $9 billion over the next decade, while seniors and individuals with disabilities will save upwards of $3 billion in reduced premiums and cost sharing.

More: HuffPo

[msongs]

1. time to put all federal employees including congress and president on medicare nt

[wishstar]

3. All Federal employees have paid into Medicare since 1983, Congress and Pres. pay into it also

Federal employees were required to have Medicare payroll taxes withheld beginning in 1983. Many of them though never get anything back from Medicare since they can opt to continue their federal health plans and not apply for Medicare.

However, whether they are working or retired they have to pay more for their federal plan premiums (of which the most common choice is Blue Cross Federal) than the Medicare premium costs, although the federal plans may be a bit more generous than Medicare. It is a myth that federal employees have a free ride when it comes to health care.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

7. Yep

I pay about four times as much for BC/BS under the federal plan than Medicare recipients pay, but that's for the family option. $350/$700 deductible, $10,000 family out of pocket max, $25/office visit co-pay, $35/specialist office visit co-pay, great prescription drug coverage.

I'm very happy with my insurance, but it's not free, which is a common misperception.

[Faux pas]

2. Good good good!

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Not so good.

Medicare annual deductible is now 147.00
So next year it is going up by 20.00.
The monthly premium will stay the same, thankfully.

[2naSalit]

4. I went to

see about enrollment yesterday and found that I don't qualify for medicare and all the ins. plans cost more/month than my rent which I struggle to pay during the winter. "So", the navigator told me, "... that means you're exempt."


I have worked a a federal employee for two summers and i got no insurance then because I can't afford it and it doesn't cover what I would need it for anyway. So I'm one of those "fell through the cracks" cases, story of my life. Whenever there's a new social program of any kind I either don't qualify by an inch or the program ends almost immediately after I get involved... most of time I don't even bother with any of them anymore.

[MineralMan]

10. Why don't you qualify for Medicare?

They must have given you a reason for that. I'm curious about the reasons.

Are you 65 or older? If not, are you sure you're not talking about Medicaid? That's a completely different program. From what you did write, I'm guessing that it's Medicaid you're talking about.

[2naSalit]

11. You're correct.

I get the two confused because I don't use either, I guess. Thanks for the correction!



Just turned 59 and am often employed only during summer as I live near a tourist town. I made about $4K too much this year to qualify for Medicaid and all the "plans" were close to $600/month with a huge deductible and it would be far more for the things I actually do need insurance for like dental and vision. Not happening in my world... I rarely go to see a physician at anytime so it's a big chunk of $$ more than I normally pay out of pocket for anything. I'm sorry everybody but I can't participate because I'm too poor.

[MineralMan]

12. I've been self-employed almost all of my adult life.

I'm on Medicare now. Before that, I did pay for health insurance, expensive as it was. My wife is the same age you are. Her monthly premium for health insurance, even with Obamacare, went up to almost $1000. It was more than that before Obamacare? Can we afford it. Not really, not on our income. Can we afford to be without it. Absolutely not. So we squeeze it in somehow.

When I was 45 years old, I ended up in a hospital in Arizona while on a trip. Somehow, I got viral meningitis. I was in a coma for several days and in the hospital for over 2 weeks. I recovered fully. My co-pay for all of that was over $25,000. Imagine what might have happened if I hadn't had health insurance. The total bill, before the insurance company cut it down through their agreement with that hospital, was over $600,000. I paid off that co-pay over time, but I'd have been bankrupted without the health insurance.

You can't afford health insurance, but I guarantee you can't afford not to have it. It sucks. We need another system. We need single-payer. We don't have it. Medicaid is for people below the poverty line. If you aren't there, it's not available. It just isn't.

I don't have an answer for you. I just wanted to point out that you WILL be eligible for Medicare at age 65. Hang in there.

[2naSalit]

16. I do agree

that having health insurance is better than not having it. I had it during most of my working life because I got it through work. Same as this summer, if anything happened there was a plan for it... I did suffer a very mild injury but it also needed to be seen, and thankfully it happened on the job so the <$200 bill was a minor issue, even if I had to pay for it.

As a seasonal worker, I'm glad that there was insurance of any kind with the job, at least it was there while I was working.

[Hoyt]

5. I wonder if all those who were bashing Obama for "slashing" Medicare a few weeks ago, will apologize

I really don't wonder because I know darn well they won't, too busy looking for the next thing to criticize him without knowing facts.

[Stellar]

9. hear, hear! nt.

[MineralMan]

13. No, they will not. They'll wait for the next thing to jump on that they

will have to retreat from. The Keystone Pipeline was another one. Obama turned it down. There were hundreds of OPs damning him for supporting it, even though he wasn't actively supporting it. When he turned it down, there were three or four threads nobody posted in. Bash, but never admit you're wrong. That's some people's strategy.

[Scuba]

8. Kind of a reverse bait-and-switch. Announce horrible increases so the actual will seem OK.

Meanwhile, the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans remain in place.

Fuck the Third Way.

[Enthusiast]

15. +1 You nailed it.

[freshwest]

14. I had to calm down some seniors over the overblown story pushed a few weeks ago.

IIRC, their 'source' was the AARP, whose leadership changed during the Bush administration to hand out GOP talking points to the elderly. I explained they were in the group which PBO demanded to be held 'forever harmless' by future increases in Medicare A&B.

And that the ones getting the most airtime are those in that 30% who also resist the cap, calling it 'sell out' and tarring Obama with endless calumnies. And that the $50 a month increase hits a group that has $120K in income. So that $600 a year is going to break them?

The universalist meme which calls such analysis petty or unfair, inevitably fails as we look at lifetime relationships. There are the advantaged from hard work and the advantaged from doing white collar or other kinds of crime. Once the money is in their hands, they will do anything to keep it all to themselves.

Spreading disinformation is a great tool and it easily catches fire in the minds of those who are afraid. As well they should be, but they are still misinformed.

As people age and are less active in politics, as well as those who are much older and expect Social Security as a birthright, they may jump at any threat. The New Deal program was more than a twinkle in the patriot Thomas Paine's eye. The Social Security site had his essay, 'Agrarian Justice' highlighted when Obama was elected.

Now one has to go into the SSA. gov archives for it. The intent of a payment to those who were dispossessed of the means of the production (land, etc.) through warfare of which there is more than one kind, to bring peace in the world by equalizing the loss of natural inheritance by seizures to give wealth to a select few. This is not a theory, it the history of the human race and Paine was very aware of this aspect, whether he liked it or not. He was in favor of what is called a base income for those so deprived in order to give them a chance to improve their lives against powerful forces.

IMHO, wealth was never meant to stay in the hands of a few indefinitely. It is to be used for projects that the Commons could not do by themselves, transformed by private and /or government entities. The inheritance tax was pushed by early leaders to prevent the consolidation of generational wealth by various families, who in the days before the Constitution was written, were forming an aristocracy.

Sorry, went offtopic.

[2naSalit]

17. ^^THIS!^^