Alzheimer’s drug cited as Medicare premium jumps by $21.60
The increase guarantees that health care will gobble up a big chunk of the recently announced Social Security cost-of-living allowance, a boost that had worked out to $92 a month for the average retired worker, intended to help cover rising prices for gas and food that are pinching seniors.
This is something nobody says much about when they rave about Medicare for all but Medicare is not free. Yes, it's substantially subsidized by tax money and so it's cheaper than the commercial product but it still costs something, and that something is deducted from the Social Security payments we old codgers get.
And every year, right on schedule, the government announces a cost-of-living increase to Social Security payments (that's indexed to inflation) and then, about a month later, a corresponding increase to the Medicare premium (that is inflation).
This year the hit is a little less than most years, proportionally, and yes, this Alzheimer's drug is undoubtedly a very good thing. So not bitching, just pointing out.
This year's Medicare increase is, just like the bump in Social Security COLA, "one of the largest increases ever."
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