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I started Medicare before drawing SS so I paid for Part-B with checks starting in 2014. I now draw SS and pay Part-b with a deduction and fully expected to be covered by the hold-harmless provision to hold the cost of my insurance payment, but instead got notice it is going up.
Anyone have a simple explanation of the hold-harmless provision and the recent increase in Part-b premiums?
if you are collecting a check ,the increase in medicare can never be more than you got as an adjustment . cola's went up this year so your medicare premium can be brought up some .
it still may be behind current market because the 2% was not enough to bring it all the way . my wife was collecting before me and on medicare first . she was raised to 129 and me 134 .
hold harmless does not mean you don't get increased . it just means your increase can not exceed your raise .
if you are collecting a check ,the increase in medicare can never be more than you got as an adjustment . cola's went up this year so your medicare premium can be brought up some .
it still may be behind current market because the 2% was not enough to bring it all the way . my wife was collecting before me and on medicare first . she was raised to 129 and me 134 .
hold harmless does not mean you don't get increased . it just means your increase can not exceed your raise .
Thanks for the explanation... both my wife and I now pay 134. I erroneously thought I would stay in the bracket I was in but now see otherwise... the most of any raise goes to medicare.
if you are collecting a check ,the increase in medicare can never be more than you got as an adjustment . cola's went up this year so your medicare premium can be brought up some .
it still may be behind current market because the 2% was not enough to bring it all the way . my wife was collecting before me and on medicare first . she was raised to 129 and me 134 .
hold harmless does not mean you don't get increased . it just means your increase can not exceed your raise .
so many are still getting a discount at 129.00 up from 104 . my wife is . but i just started in october so i started out at 134.00 .
medicare is fabulous when you think in terms of even seeing a 10 buck increase in premium . those not on medicare are seeing hundreds a month in increases for 2018 and getting no raises at work . they are seeing it in either premium increases or raised out of pockets or both .
we are sooooooooooooooooooooooo lucky to be avoiding that .
there is always going to be changes but it is what it is . i don't dwell on the what if's .
i deal with the cards as dealt and play them as best as i can . if the hand changes i will see what has to be done .
most of this stuff you hear proposed never happens .
if medicare changes and becomes to costly i would look in to rolling the dice with an advantage plan .
they can be cheaper and if nothing is ever a problem then you saved . the reason i stayed away is because with them nothing is a problem until it is a problem .
but lots of people use them and have no issues . but then again many do run in to things and they find while they are supposed to cover what medicare covers that is only true until they don't . not for profit gov't medicare can end up being very different than a for profit advantage plan insurer .
the catch 22 is without having gov't medicare as your insurer you don't know what they would have covered in your course of treatment . there is no way to tell and the insurer's know this in these advantage plans . they basically can say yes or no to your treatment or surgery and you have no way of saying but medicare would have paid for this .
case in point is a co-worker who has pituitary gland cancer . one 1/2 is cancerous , the other 1/2 not very healthy but not cancerous .surgeon's want both halves removed . her advantage plan will only approve removal of one 1/2 and will not cover the other 1/2 .
the surgeons are like this is crazy , medicare always approves full removal . but because she does not have medicare for comparison in her case the advantage plan is free to cover whatever they want since there is no way of documenting just what medicare will pay for since she has no gov't medicare .
so don't believe for one second that your advantage plan will cover whatever medicare does , because you have no way of knowing what medicare would approve in your specific case .
but the option is always there if medicare gets to expensive . of course not all states will let you switch later on without underwriting so you may want to look in to this when making that plan b
Last edited by mathjak107; 12-22-2017 at 03:59 AM..
Often it's best to deal with things day by day - otherwise you worry yourself to death about things that may never happen. When it comes to politics - each party sees the other as the devil incarnate - you really waste the precious time you have left fretting and worrying about things you can't change.
i may have concerns about a whole bunch of things in this world and country . but there is a difference between my concern and my problem .
most things are a concern and something i can't control . like a lazy Susan , i swing it to the back and leave it there . the problems i can fix stay in the front of the tray . if i am going to dwell or worry about something it should be worth doing .
what if's are always at the back of the lazy Susanne
My insurance went for $919.00 to $1090 per month, more deducatble form best (blues) company to worst (UHC). I'm in NV UHC has run everyone out of the state if you are buying individual policies.
I'm not covered if I leave town like I was with my last. 4 more years of this insurnace hell.
I'd give anything to be on medicare.
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