increase in medicare cost for 2017

[frank]

I was reading an article on the AARP sight that said the cola for 2017 would be 0.2 percent but the increase in medicare will not be held to the amount of the increase any longer. I was wondering how they got around that stipulation in the medicare premiums. the article was interesting, but not very enlightening as to how the government got the increase passed. anyone know how this happened or where it will go? once they figure a way to increase medicare premiums and not the cola it will keep going in that direction with bigger increases yearly. Social Security COLA Projected for 2017 - AARP

 

[MBSC]

The article is poorly worded. The hold harmless provision has not changed.

Approximately 70% of Medicare beneficiaries are held harmless. Their Medicare premium will increase by the amount of SS benefit increase. The article says this amount "will be" $2.70 but that is just an average based on average SS benefits. Their increase will be based on their specific SS COLA.

The Medicare hold harmless provision does not apply to new SS enrollees, those not receiving SS benefits, and those who are subject to IRMAA. This is not a change.

The 0.2% SS COLA is an estimate at this time.

 

[REWahoo]

I was reading an article on the AARP sight that said the cola for 2017 would be 0.2 percent but the increase in medicare will not be held to the amount of the increase any longer. I was wondering how they got around that stipulation in the medicare premiums. the article was interesting, but not very enlightening as to how the government got the increase passed.

I think you are misunderstanding the article. I see nothing new about the folks currently on Medicare who have their premiums deducted from their SS being "held harmless" and having their premium increase limited to the COLA amount, while all others bear the brunt of the cost increase through far higher premiums. Check it out here:

Increases in Part B premiums & the hold harmless provision - Medicare Interactive

 

[mathjak107]

yep , that is exactly the case with one added twist . in 2018 the premium increases because you are over the income limits will have another income bracket added where you can jump to if your income is in that range regardless of collecting ss or not .

 

[audreyh1]

Yep - I noticed that when I was doing some projections. They essentially lowered the two top brackets from $214,000 to $160,000 and from $133,500 to $160,000.

The old brackets used to be from $107K to $160K - but they split it in half, and then dropped the $160K to $214K bracket to just being $160K and above.