Inflation Reduction Act is causing 'dramatic' rise in Medicare premiums, experts say

[Northeast Agent]

[EXTERNAL LINK] - Inflation Reduction Act is causing 'dramatic' rise in Medicare premiums, experts say

But it's not just that the Inflation Reduction Act failed to stop the jump in Part D premiums. It may actually be causing it.

In particular, the law sets a $2,000 cap on how much Medicare recipients spend out of pocket on drugs per year. For seniors with the biggest medical bills — for example, those dependent on expensive cancer drugs — this measure is "revolutionary," Johnson has said. But the money to cover the rest of those bills must come from somewhere, and insurers appear to be getting it from the seniors themselves.

 

[InsuranceGuy29]

Headline should read "Democrats Still Struggle To Comprehend Reality."

Bless their hearts, many of them mean well, but they don't understand that everything is interconnected and creates a domino effect of sorts. When you try to just ram things through, there will be many unintended negative consequences.

That's why compromise is important. Not trying to brag, but I saw this coming a mile away. Pretty sure most of us here did. There is no endless pool of funds, contrary to what some people think. It all comes from the same tax dollars. "Tax dollars" = Us Citizens.

This is the same reasons why Obamacare actually ended up RAISING insurance premiums for most people. They just rammed it through. Those people are subsidizing others in the form of their own raised premiums and lower quality insurance benefits. On the exchange, the more you pay, the worse your insurance benefits are. I'm sorry, but that is INSANE.

And that is all caused by government intervention, solely. Contrary to popular belief, insurers don't have endless money pits (many insurers do go out of business, stop servicing large areas due to it being unprofitable, and go bankrupt), and it's mandated by law that on both the under-65 Obamacare exchange and Medicare exchange that they must use at least 85% of premium dollars for consumer benefits. That's quite a lot.

 

[DonP]

Since the beginning of time . 1 is one . A bowl of jello is still the same . How you divide it up is the only thing that changes. The last 10-15 yrs the mostly democratic govt has been trying to transfer wealth from the middle class and wealthy to the poor ( Obamacare , Medicaid , ssdi, ssi , food stamps etc ) . In reality the rich haven’t paid for it . Debt has paid for it . Yesterday I sat at the table of a Medicare Hispanic client . His wife speaks no English . She’s never worked . She’s on Obamacare and I looked at the app . To get over the income limit they lied and said she’s a housekeeper .50% of Obamacare apps are lied on . We’ve created a 100 million person welfare state with free Obamacare and Medicaid.

 

[somarco]

Curated from the linked article cited above . . .


Earlier this month, Johnson's Part D provider sent her a letter explaining how her plan will change next year. One of the changes: Her premium will jump from $12.70 per month to $18.80 — a 48% increase.

"When I saw that, I immediately thought, 'Hey, wait a minute,'" Johnson recalled. "'I thought there was a cap on how much those premiums could increase.'"

In fact, there is such a cap. In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration's expansive legislation tackling both climate change and rising health care costs. Under that law, Part D "base premiums" are not supposed to rise more than 6% per year. But according to Johnson, those "base premiums" pertain to the government's negotiations over drug plans, not the bills paid by individual seniors.

"That cap on the 6% has to do with the government bidding process," Johnson said. "What the consumer actually sees can be very different."



Once again, carriers outsmarted the goobers in DC that are patting themselves on the back for creating pork filled legislation that penalizes most seniors at the expense of a handful that actually benefit from the changes.