Paltry SS increase, huge Medicare part B increase (spouses, federal, depression)
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SS cola is bogus just like the cost of living index. Expect more of the same. They're up to their eyeballs in debt, and don't have the cash to pay out on their commitments, so expect less from govt. even as cost of living increases.
At this stage of the game, something is better than nothing. The increase isn't going to make our day, shake up our lives or make an appreciable difference in our quality of life. But it will pay our quarterly water bill and every little bit helps. We are not ones to look a gift-horse in the mouth. We've had two years of nothing so a little something is a welcome change. Of course, I tend to look on the bright side of things. Silly me!
Keep in mind also that if you have an IRA or other investments, the companies jacking up prices on consumers are also maximizing their profits and fluffing up your account balances. If you currently are, or plan to be, drawing from your IRA for living expenses, you've got to be happy with the stock market over the past nine months.
That's the positive way to look at it. The negative way would be to argue that profiting from the needs and hardships of others (a.k.a. capitalism), and maximizing that profitability by manipulating supply and demand, always seeking to pay lower wages and acquiring cheap labor for whom corporations provide minimum benefits, is not a good thing, karma-wise.
My portfolio and Chi are both doing well . Karma is good because that is personal and we are able to spend and help the economy grow and share charitably.
My portfolio and Chi are both doing well . Karma is good because that is personal and we are able to spend and help the economy grow and share charitably.
Whew, thanks. I feel better.
Try to get Medicare under control, though, willya? I move back to the States next year, and bid a sad goodbye to Japan's system, which is light years ahead of us both in efficiency and cost-wise. Plus I'm taller here.
I have a hunch that part of the confusion is that new Medicare recipients (like us) are not protected by the hold harmless clause and we will pay the full additional amount as will future retirees along with the very wealthy now and others not protected by the hold harmless provision. Is that possible? Some folks talking apples and other oranges? So those currently receiving will be held to a 1.7% increase and those new and future retirees will pay more.
Yes, you are right.
"The standard Medicare Part B premium is determined by a formula contained in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, which set the premium at 25 percent of total program costs. The remaining 75 percent of program costs are financed through general revenues. The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) requires higher-income beneficiaries to pay a higher percentage of program costs, resulting in multiple tiers of premiums based on income." (WSJ)
And... (paraphrasing here)
New Medicare enrollees, higher-income Medicare beneficiaries paying higher premiums and those who don't have their premiums deducted from Social Security aren't protected by the "hold harmless" provision.
Those who don't fall under the "hold harmless" provision pay additional amounts, if needed, to meet the "25 percent of total program costs".
MadMan would know. He hasn't been around for a while.
I agree that if it's knowable, MadMan would know it, but we may have to have patience for a few more days until the official Medicare Part B premium for 2013 is announced. (It is "expected" to be increased by about $7 per month.)
Obama has spend sooo much money, how do you expect a decent cost of living wage on Social Security. It's a shame. We have been delt a terrifying hand from this man in more ways than one.
Obama has spend sooo much money, how do you expect a decent cost of living wage on Social Security. It's a shame. We have been delt a terrifying hand from this man in more ways than one.
Did you read the entire thread? Have you read anything about how the Social Security COLA's are calculated? I guess not, because if you had, you would know that neither Obama nor any other President since 1997 has had anything to do with the COLA or its amount or its method of calculation. It would require an act of Congress to make any change in the formulas used to calculate the COLA.
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