CMS has been hard at work deciding what the 2023 Medicare Part B premiums would be as well as the Part D premiums and of course the surcharges when your income is too high versus the rest of Americans over 65 and on Medicare.
I’ve personally been involved in offering Medicare plans to seniors since 2003 and I am surprised about the new rates for Part B and the drug plan deductibles and average cost nationwide. Also discovered that the surcharges have been adjusted again along with the penalties for not joining Medicare when you should for 2023.
Suspect a math major worked on the new charges for 2023! If anyone remembers that the 2021 Medicare Part B premium was in the low $140.00 per month and the 2022 premium jumped up over $30 per month. Many seniors who are on fixed incomes had trouble paying these higher premiums and of course complained to the Social Security Administration which recognized that they needed to make a change for 2023 (The reason the Part B premium went up so much was due to a miscalculation by CMS for some very expensive Alzheimer’s drug.)
They over calculated the cost, so they raised Part B from $140+ to $170+. Now that CMS has the correct costs, they have lowered the monthly Part B premium by about $5. The premium wasn’t lowered enough to help seniors.
This to me is unacceptable because many seniors can’t afford the monthly premiums but have no choice if they want to stay on Medicare. If you are very poor, you can get help in paying the Part B premium but if you are middle class economically, you get no help. There are many seniors struggling to pay the Part B premium and still have money for food, etc. We really need to rethink this entire process and adjust for those struggling with the premium but have no other choice. Since I began selling Medicare, the Part B premium has risen from $58 to $170 and now reduced slightly to$164.
I understand the need to adjust these premiums but quite frankly if Congress was made to go onto Medicare and social security, these programs would be fixed and there would not be a concern that these programs are running out of money and will be bankrupt in the foreseeable future.
I am merely restating facts that are common knowledge but many think about them. By writing this blog, am hoping it gets some traction and perhaps with some help from other senior organizations we can get CMS to think about seniors and adjust premiums so seniors who are spending a good part of their entire social security to pay the Medicare Part B premiums.
Our country needs to rethink what is going on with seniors on social security and Medicare and find fixable solutions to these problems. As mentioned earlier in this blog, if Congress was forced to go onto both social security and Medicare these programs would be fixed. Congress has the power to fix this,
yet they do nothing about it. I’ve been asked by every senior I meet with, and they all ask the same question. We need to get major senior organizations behind this, or it will not happen. Cannot mention them by name but we all know who I am mentioning. The power these two senior organizations represent 10’s of thousands of seniors and have the lobbyists to work on Congress. It seems they have fallen asleep on the job.
Without their concurrence no changes will happen. I do suggest that each one of us contact our Senators and Congress people and ask them to help make this happen.
We will keep mentioning this until someone takes notice and does something about it. If anyone of our NV Congress people or our Senators brought this up it could change things and I hope, they are listening and take notice.
Also take a look at Medicare 2023 Information.
The Barend Agency Inc.
Len Barend, Broker
Cell:702-250-2200
Email: len@insurance4unevada.com