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My sister sent me an email she received about Medicare. She is surrounded by Republicans where she lives in FL and always asks me about those emails. I try to find out for her as I do not want to give her false information. The email she received was from someone who works for BCBS in Fl. "The per person Medicare insurance premium will increase from the present monthly fee of $96.40 rising to $247.00 in 2014. The fee for 2012 will be $104.20, 2013 will
be $120.20 and 2014 $247.00. These provisions incorporated in the Obamacare legislation, purposely delayed so as not to confuse the 2012 reelection campaign."The se My fee for 2012 was exactly the same as last year--96.40. The sender also said the MSM knows nothing about this yet. Any enlightenment appreciated.
pinto
(106,886 posts)asjr
(10,479 posts)haele
(12,673 posts)The premiums this e-mail talks to are the ones Medicare part B recipients are required to pay, which is expected to remain pretty much the same - or even go down as more cost-cutting regulations take affect. You don't pay premiums on Medicare Part D (where costs to the recipiant are actually going down with the closing of the doughnut hole), and you don't pay premiums on Medicare part A, which is basic emergancy care. The only other premiums Medicare part B recipients might pay would be the Medicare Supplimental insurance policies, which should be going down somewhat are ACA regulations are starting to crack down on Medicare Fraud and other insurance expenditures that have nothing to do with healthcare.
This is Rovian astroturft to get a more-insurance company friendly administration in place so that the ACA can be weakened over the next couple years when the government-regulated insurance pool and some of the other insurance company penalties for the way they spend money or raise premiums will kick in.
The MSM not knowing about that is part of the scam. If Medicare part B premiums - which are the only premiums that the federal government controls - were supposed to rise that drastically by 2014, they'd be all over it.
Even Politifact says it's totally wrong, and they always defer to the right with their "fact finding".
Apparently, this e-mail has been around since 2009 - as soon as the administration started talking about Affordable Health Care.
Here is the Medicare Timeline:
http://www.healthcare.gov/law/timeline/
From the affordable health care act summary -
http://www.healthcare.gov/law/resources/reports/affordablecareact.html
A slower rate of growth in Medicare is expected to result in a slower rate of growth in beneficiary out-of-pocket payments, and a slower rate of growth in Part B premiums. In addition, the closing of the donut hole will result in large savings for beneficiaries with high levels of prescription drug spending.
And here is an official reply to that e-mail from Blue Cross Blue Shield (where this e-mail is supposed to have originated from):
http://blog.horizonblue.com/articledetails/medicare-part-b-premium-going-247
As you can see, it is still a bit against the ACA in suggesting that premiums may raise some for people who are not getting SSI, but admits that there is no way that premiums would rise the amount that the e-mail purports. And of course, does not discuss that the savings that the closing of the Medicare D gap and penalties for jerking up prices and Medicare fraud are far greater than any of the premium increases.
Haele