Helena
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2006
- Messages
- 994
.
The 2017 SS COLA increase is projected to be the lowest ever...
but it will be gobbled up in a major increase in Medicare B premiums.
But it gets worse... unless congress intervenes like it did last year.
Social Security cost-of-living adjustment expected to be lowest ever
" People who enrolled in Medicare in 2016 pay a higher base amount of $121.80 per month. Their Medicare premium for 2017 could also increase by the amount of their Social Security COLA.
Higher-income retirees, as well as people who are enrolled in Medicare but not collecting Social Security benefits, will pay even higher Medicare Part B premiums next year. So will people who enroll in Medicare for the first time in 2017.
“ Beneficiaries who do not qualify for protection under the hold-harmless provision could face large Medicare premium increases in 2017,” according to a Congressional Research Service report on Medicare Part B Premiums published in August. “If there were a 0.2% Social Security COLA in 2017, the Medicare Trustees estimate that the standard premiums of those not held harmless would increase to $149 per month with those paying the high-income premiums potentially facing monthly premiums ranging from $204.40 to $467.20 per month.”
more at link above
Here is more interesting info:
Last year's COLA headache is likely to return this fall | PBS NewsHour
" ... if the COLA actually increases near the projected amount... people will find themselves paying different amounts for Part B premiums. Here’s how it will work:
People now held harmless and paying $104.90 a month would still be held harmless. Their monthly Social Security payment would stay the same, and their tiny COLA would be paid out as higher Part B premiums. Based on average Social Security monthly retirement benefits, the Part B premium for these folks would rise by $2.70 a month, from $104.90 to $107.60, explains Dan Adcock, director of government relations and policy for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare. But the actual amount of the Part B increase would be 0.2 percent of a person’s actual monthly Social Security payment.
So if you thought last year was confusing, wait until next year! The implication of a 0.2 percent COLA (or, in fact, any COLA that is smaller than Part B premium increases) is that people’s Part B premiums would no longer be the same. Based on Adcock’s projections, the $2.70 average monthly Part B premium increase would only be paid in reality by someone earning the average monthly Social Security benefit of about $1,350 a month. People with smaller benefits would face smaller Part B increases and those with larger benefits would pay more. Last year’s smaller mess would become a much bigger mess!
And it will be made bigger or at least more confusing still, because the group not held harmless last year has been paying monthly Part B premiums this year of $121.80. Many of them will now join the hold harmless group for 2017, meaning their Social Security payments cannot be decreased. So all of their 0.2 percent COLAs also would go to higher Part B premiums. But these, too, would be linked to specific monthly benefits, meaning that this group’s 2017 Part B premiums would be $121.80 a month plus 0.2 percent of their actual monthly Social Security benefit.
Do you think this will be unbelievably confusing? You betcha! "
Lest we forget, there will be a new group of 30 percent of beneficiaries who will not be held harmless next year. Adcock says their projected Part B premiums would jump more than 22 percent from $121.80 to $149 a month. Congress would not like this any more than it did last year, he notes. But providing another one-year fix is likely the best we can do. Even here, however, the outlook is dicey. "
more at link above
.
The 2017 SS COLA increase is projected to be the lowest ever...
but it will be gobbled up in a major increase in Medicare B premiums.
But it gets worse... unless congress intervenes like it did last year.
Social Security cost-of-living adjustment expected to be lowest ever
" People who enrolled in Medicare in 2016 pay a higher base amount of $121.80 per month. Their Medicare premium for 2017 could also increase by the amount of their Social Security COLA.
Higher-income retirees, as well as people who are enrolled in Medicare but not collecting Social Security benefits, will pay even higher Medicare Part B premiums next year. So will people who enroll in Medicare for the first time in 2017.
“ Beneficiaries who do not qualify for protection under the hold-harmless provision could face large Medicare premium increases in 2017,” according to a Congressional Research Service report on Medicare Part B Premiums published in August. “If there were a 0.2% Social Security COLA in 2017, the Medicare Trustees estimate that the standard premiums of those not held harmless would increase to $149 per month with those paying the high-income premiums potentially facing monthly premiums ranging from $204.40 to $467.20 per month.”
more at link above
Here is more interesting info:
Last year's COLA headache is likely to return this fall | PBS NewsHour
" ... if the COLA actually increases near the projected amount... people will find themselves paying different amounts for Part B premiums. Here’s how it will work:
People now held harmless and paying $104.90 a month would still be held harmless. Their monthly Social Security payment would stay the same, and their tiny COLA would be paid out as higher Part B premiums. Based on average Social Security monthly retirement benefits, the Part B premium for these folks would rise by $2.70 a month, from $104.90 to $107.60, explains Dan Adcock, director of government relations and policy for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare. But the actual amount of the Part B increase would be 0.2 percent of a person’s actual monthly Social Security payment.
So if you thought last year was confusing, wait until next year! The implication of a 0.2 percent COLA (or, in fact, any COLA that is smaller than Part B premium increases) is that people’s Part B premiums would no longer be the same. Based on Adcock’s projections, the $2.70 average monthly Part B premium increase would only be paid in reality by someone earning the average monthly Social Security benefit of about $1,350 a month. People with smaller benefits would face smaller Part B increases and those with larger benefits would pay more. Last year’s smaller mess would become a much bigger mess!
And it will be made bigger or at least more confusing still, because the group not held harmless last year has been paying monthly Part B premiums this year of $121.80. Many of them will now join the hold harmless group for 2017, meaning their Social Security payments cannot be decreased. So all of their 0.2 percent COLAs also would go to higher Part B premiums. But these, too, would be linked to specific monthly benefits, meaning that this group’s 2017 Part B premiums would be $121.80 a month plus 0.2 percent of their actual monthly Social Security benefit.
Do you think this will be unbelievably confusing? You betcha! "
Lest we forget, there will be a new group of 30 percent of beneficiaries who will not be held harmless next year. Adcock says their projected Part B premiums would jump more than 22 percent from $121.80 to $149 a month. Congress would not like this any more than it did last year, he notes. But providing another one-year fix is likely the best we can do. Even here, however, the outlook is dicey. "
more at link above
.
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