The Ledger- Voice of the people- Seniors fall further behind with Medicare increases
Mon, January 10, 2022, 11:36 AM
Seniors fall further behind with Medicare increases
When many received their normal benefit amount notification letter from the office of Social Security. It states that my benefit will increase 5.9% for 2022. What does that mean? The notification letter also indicates that for 2022 $170.10 per month will be withheld for Medicare medical insurance.
Looking elsewhere, I see that my Medicare deducible for 2022 will be $233 (for 2021 it was $203). Doing simple math, the yearly amount that I will spend for Medicare medical insurance before it does me any good will be $2,274.20 for 2022. For 2021 that same number was $1,985.00. This represents a 14.6 % increase from 2021.
Inflation (defined as the increase in cost of a list of goods and services manipulated by factors that may or may not equitably impact seniors) is stated to be in the 6% range, but clearly the impact of the increased cost of Medicare medical
insurance is very much higher than inflation.
Seniors on fixed incomes and Social Security fall further and further behind.
Edward McDonald, Auburndale