Thread: Medicare rise could mean no Social Security COLA

Medicare rise could mean no Social Security COLA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of retired and disabled people in the United States had better brace for another year with no increase in Social Security payments.

The government is projecting a slight cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits next year, the first increase since 2009. But for most beneficiaries, rising Medicare premiums threaten to wipe out any increase in payments, leaving them without a raise for a third straight year.

About 45 million people — one in seven in the country — receive both Medicare and Social Security. By law, beneficiaries have their Medicare Part B premiums, which cover doctor visits, deducted from their Social Security payments each month.

When Medicare premiums rise more than Social Security payments, millions of people living on fixed incomes don't get raises. On the other hand, most don't get pay cuts, either, because a hold-harmless provision prevents higher Part B premiums from reducing Social Security payments for most people.

David Certner of AARP estimates that as many as three-fourths of beneficiaries will have their entire Social Security increase swallowed by rising Medicare premiums next year.

It's a tough development for retirees who lost much of their savings when the stock market collapsed, who lost value in their homes when the housing market crashed and who can't find work because the job market is weak or they are in poor health.

"You just don't have the words to say how much this impacts a person," said Joyce Trebilcock, a retired legal secretary from Belle, Mo., a small town about 100 miles west of St. Louis.

Like most U.S. retirees, Trebilcock, 65, said Social Security is her primary source of income. She said a back injury about 15 years ago left her unable to work, so she applied for disability benefits. Now, she lives on a $1,262 Social Security payment each month, with more than $500 going to pay the mortgage.

"I've cut back on about everything I can, and I take the rest out of my savings," Trebilcock said. "Thank God I've got that. That's going to run out before long, at the rate I'm going. ... I have no idea what I'm going to do then."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... rity_N.htm

ObamaCare drains Medicare
Columnists
Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - 6:07pm
Submitted by Ronald E. Bachman

One of the most controversial parts of the new federal healthcare law is the redistribution of funding from Medicare to other programs. If Obamacare is left unchanged, it will take $500 billion from Medicare over the next 10 years.

Medicare beneficiaries will see higher premiums; doctors, nurses, hospitals and medical suppliers will get lower payments. The Medicare reductions will be used to subsidize expanded Medicaid to low-income recipients and to fund insurance for the uninsured.

For the 78 million baby boomers eligible for Medicare over the next decade, this is more than a redistribution of wealth. It is a redistribution of health and wellness. They will get less healthcare; others will get more.

Payment reductions lower seniors’ ability to access quality preventive services, early intervention and acute care treatments. Many seniors believe Obamacare threatens their health and well-being.

For Medicare beneficiaries who paid for Medicare during their working life and continue to pay premiums, the argument is not whether healthcare is a right or a privilege; it is a solemn contract with the federal government.

Obamacare ignores Medicare’s biggest financial issue: the “doctor-fix.â€

So all those boomers who spent years working hard and contributing to Medicare will get to subsidize younger people on welfare or who just don't feel like buying health insurance, at the expense of their own healthcare benefits.

quote(So all those boomers who spent years working hard and contributing to Medicare will get to subsidize younger people on welfare or who just don't feel like buying health insurance, at the expense of their own healthcare benefits.)quote

Obamacare=anti-seniors, redistribution of wealth building a new generation of young people dependent on government hand outs thereby assuring the democrat party voters for the future, throw in under educated third world folks coming in county at a high rate and your building the perfect socialist society the left wants.

No worries

We just go to the food-bank one more time a month and turn OFF the heaters

So, any rise in the cost of my Medicare will be covered by my S.S. COLA increase.

In this economy I can live with that.

I'll still get the same amount for S.S.

and I won't pay more for Medicare out of my savings.