Medicare premiums to rise 17% in 2005....don't get old!

[AnnInLa]

Medicare premiums to rise 17 percent in 2005
Increase in payments for doctor visits is largest ever jump
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:51 p.m. ET Sept. 3, 2004

WASHINGTON - Medicare premiums for doctor visits will rise 17 percent next year, the Bush administration said Friday. The $11.60-a-month increase is the largest in the program’s 40-year-history.


Monthly payments for Part B of the government health care program for older and disabled Americans — doctor visits and most other non-hospital expenses — will jump to $78.20 from $66.60.

more at http://www.msnbc.com/id/5908315/

(and the screwing of oldsters and the disabled continues)

[artfan]

1. It is not just the old

it is also the disabled. My husband has medicare and is REQUIRED to pay for part B even though he is insured through Tri Care because he is retired military. If he does not pay for part B he is put at the bottom of the priority list and has to pay a huge portion of his hospital bills.

Because we still have young children at home we need every penny. The increase in premiums will squeeze us.

[Longhorn79]

2. This doesn't jive with Bush's speech last night

where he said "We are obligated to honor our seniors..blah, blah". One would think they would notice.

[ozymandius]

3. And yet, some of these people keep voting Republican.

Ten years of Republican health care initiatives culminate with the overhaul of medicare subsidies. This means: you get screwed. I wonder who views this plan favorably. AARP perhaps?