The Medicare Open Enrollment period ends on December 7, so you still have time to review your Medicare options for 2022. Particularly if you have Medicare Part D drug coverage or are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage private plan–a health plan offered by a corporate health insurance company–it could save you a lot of money. Your Medicare Part B premium is rising regardless of whether you are enrolled in traditional Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan.
In 2022, the standard monthly Medicare Part B premium, which covers medical and outpatient care, is $170.10, a monthly increase of $21.60 from $148.50, for people with annual incomes of $88,000 or less in 2021. Your Social Security increase should cover that cost and, for most people, provide an additional $70 a month in benefits.
Social Security benefits in 2022 will be up an average of nearly six percent from this year, around $90 a month. Some of that increase will go towards the higher Medicare monthly premium.
- $238.10 a month, if their income is above $91,000 and no more than $114,000.
- $340.20 a month, if their income is above $114,000 and no more than $142,000
- $442.30 a month, if their income is above $142,000 and no more than $170,000
- $544.30 a month, if their income is above $170,000 and less than $500,000
- $578.30 a month, if their income is $500,000 or more
For couples with combined incomes of $330,000 or less two years ago, filing a joint tax return, the premium amount doubles. Couples with annual incomes above $340,000 and less than $750,000 each pay a $544.30 monthly premium. And, couples with annual incomes of $750,000 and above each pay a $578.30 monthly premium. Visit this CMS web site for your Part B premium amount if you are filing separate returns.
Medicare Part B annual deductible: $233, an increase of $30 from the annual deductible of $203 in 2021.
People with incomes up to 135 percent of the federal poverty level, ($1,456 in monthly income for an individual and $1,960 for a couple in 2020; these amounts may increase in 2021) are eligible for help paying their premiums through Medicaid or a Medicare Savings Program.
For more than four decades, the Medicare Part B premium (medical insurance) was the same for everyone regardless of income, geography or health status, a quarter of the cost of Part B services. (Medicare Part A, hospital insurance, is premium-free if you have contributed into Social Security for at least 40 quarters.) In 2007, wealthier people with Medicare began paying higher premiums.
Here are 2021 Medicare Part A costs:
- There is no Medicare Part A premium if you or your spouse have at least 40 quarters of coverage.
- The Medicare Part A premium, if you or a spouse has at least 30 quarters of coverage, is $259 a month; if you don’t have at least 30 quarters, the premium could be $471 a month.
- The Medicare Part A inpatient hospital deductible is $1,556, in 2022 an increase of $72 from 2021, and coinsurance for hospitalizations after day 60 is $389 a day in a benefit period; coinsurance for lifetime reserve days is $778 a day.
- The Medicare Part A daily coinsurance for skilled nursing facility stays after day 20 is $194.50, an increase of $9.00 from $185.50 in 2020.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Medicare open enrollment: Don’t be misled by ads
- Medicare open enrollment: Can you buy supplemental insurance?
- Medicare Open Enrollment: Don’t trust insurance agents
- Don’t judge a Medicare Advantage plan by its stars
- How to prepare for your doctor’s visit
..for those of us on the other end of the scale like myself , who’s monthly SS benefit makes it difficult to scrape by month to month that extra boost in the medicare premium just makes things harder. The main reasoning behind it is rising drug costs in particular one medication for Alzheimer’s Disease. Medicare is not allowed to negotiate drug prices and the latest attempt to change that was thwarted by conservatives on the Dem side of the aisle when it along with extending Medicare coverage to include Dental, Vision, and Hearing, was cut from the original 3.6$ trillion Social Spending Reconciliation measure referred to as the “Build Back Better Act”.
One of the leading opponents of both provisions was Sen Kyrsten Sinema (D?) of Arizona along with fellow D members Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Tom Carper of Delaware (Biden’s home state), and in the HouseL Reps. Scott Peters of California, Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Rep. Kathleen Rice of New York., All are some of the top recipients in congress who received funding from the Pharma induistry.
I am currently o my state’s Medicare Saving Plan which acts as a supp,lemental or Advantage plan and cover the full monthly premium. However with the 2022 living cost adjustment I will exceed the earnings threshold and be liable for paying the premium out of my monthly benefit. So that supposed raise will actually set me back me 110$ on my monthly benefit, with the net being less than what I received in my first year on Social Security four years ago.
The worst part is we cannot opt out, Medicare is mandatory at age 65 for Social Security recipients. So instead of getting a bit ahead we end up with a stagnant if not shrinking income as prices for everything else continue to rise. Other nations allow their retiree medical coverage to negotiate drug prices but here we just have to eat it and when you’re scraping by on barely 1,000$ a month or less like many are, it’s a pretty tough pill to swallow each year.
This increase puts the premium 26$ higher than the health plan offered by the last company I worked for when i was pulling in twice what I receive now (and I still had to cut corners as my rent was higher).
When the Medicare For All plan was being discussed, one of the provisions considered was to significantly lower or even wave the premium for those who’s only income is Social Security. of course single payer or universal health care are bad words in this nation that is swinging further to the right and will take a bit one next year.