@BeeCee554 wrote:
Thanks for your explanation, GaiL1. I guess this means that if you are already paying $134.00 for Medicare now, you will get that small raise in your SS check. My husband did get a raise. I didn't because I was paying $108.00 last year and my small raise was applied to my Medicare premium, raising it up to $125.00 and my SS check will stay the same this year, just as it did last year. I guess next year, any raise I get will still be applied to Medicare until it reaches a $134.00 premium.
AARP needs to figure this out. I believe they are mis-informed. I just read this info in the Dec. AARP Bulletin:
If you are on Medicare but not getting Social Security benfits, your monthly premium for Part B--which covers doctor visits and outpatient services--likely will hold steady at $134.
If you are on Medicare and collecting Social Security (which pays your Part B premiums), you'll likely pay $109 a month for 2018 because of a law that prevents Medicare premiums from cutting into Social Security benefits.
I am already collecting SS, but my premiums rose last year, this year and most likely next year, too. So, AARP needs to explain this to us.
Sounds like you have most of the understanding well in hand by your description of you and your husband.
However just one additional comment on your statement here:
I guess next year, any raise I get will still be applied to Medicare until it reaches a $134.00 premium.
EVERY year a new Medicare Part B premium is figured. IF the new computation indicates a new amount, usually upward, the people who HAVE to pay this new amount are those who are NOT covered by the Social Security Hold Harmless clause:
- people who are new to Medicare and are NOT receiving a Social Security benefit
- people who have higher incomes and are assessed an IRMMA ( Income Related Monthly Medicare Adjustment) - above $85,000 in income for a single
- people who are on Medicare but do not receive a Social Security benefit
For everybody else, if there is a COLA, the Hold Harmless provision is used in the calculation of their new premiums.
Lets say for example, for 2019, a new Medicare Part B premium is calculated out to be $145 per month and the COLA is even more substantial than 2% - let's say 5% - is you figure this based on your gross SS benefit, you might be paying MORE than $134 - you will be paying whatever amount up to $145 which the hold harmless provision calculates your net SS benefit is but not any lower than what you received in 2017.
Because of the rise in Part B cost, premiums are gonna keep going up until Congress figures out a way or ways to hold down Medicare Part B cost. It is not as easy as one might think - there are pros and cons on all measures that have been put forth to begin this process.
i didn't see that AARP article. From what I have read on this board, it was the actual print version of the Bulletin where this was incorrectly stated. They must have corrected it in the online version. Yes, what the stated was wrong.
Personally, I find most advocacy groups lacking in their knowledge of how government works in nuts and bolts - they seem to spend their time hyping up the masses into whatever the organization advocates. I am not a member - I try to answer questions in real nuts and bolts - trying to make government actions somehow understandable.
This SS Hold Harmless clause was actually put into the law to help protect beneficiaries.
Actually we should be somewhat grateful that we are only asked (right now) to pay in premiums representing about 25% of the total cost of the program - when Part B began, the premiums were assessed at 50% of the cost of the program.
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