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I had to google that IRMAA penalty. I guess I ignored that one because it will never apply to me. I learned something.
Also learned the Medicare premium is going up from this thread. I agree Medicare is a good thing. I am looking forward to it. I contributed financially for 40+ years so I earned it.
Looking forward to the SS increase too. Not much but better than nothing!
It doesn’t apply to most couple, but the minute one goes, that’s where you feel the pain.
The ss check is related to their paycheck ....high earners can see over 44k in ss so it is just reflecting how successful you were at earning a living
Yes very true. Another thing about the SS COLA, Pension COLA etc is what is your spending level vs combined income level. If a person is able to live on less than their monthly fixed income and have money left over that 1.6% could result in a net gain in money saved each month.
It depends on the increase or decrease in the gap between spending and income how great the COLA is and as you know it is compounded.
And it irks me when they complain about their Medicare premium increase eating up all of the COLA, which happens in many years. First, they "blame" Medicare only because it's taken out of SS so they notice it. What about increases in everything else? Second, they actually get a break because the increase in premiums is limited to the COLA increase so their net check won't go down.
You haven't heard about Medicare fraud by doctors and other health providers which is rampant to the tune of billions of dollars every year?
I'm sure you must have heard how a good number of doctors and other health providers are ripping off the Medicare system rampantly which results in tremendous waste of Medicare dollars.....and into the billions of dollars.
Lots of your hard-earned Medicare dollars are tremendously wasted by health care providers who are fraudulent in their billing practices, greedy set-ups, pushing unneeded procedures to bill and bilk, and being unscrupulous.
The scale of the fraud has been reported on many times over the years by investigative reporting and various attempts of crackdowns. And is well-known by the U.S. government.
Last edited by matisse12; 10-13-2019 at 12:57 PM..
It's always good to remind random readers of City-Data posts who are in their ages of 20's thru 50's that many of them will have small Social Security checks in the future and that means they need to have savings and 401(k) money in addition to Social Security......
that's who the comments on Social Security income are directed to - to help younger people know that Social Security checks can be quite small even with working 35 or 40 years with a decent income.
Many younger people do not know this. They think they will automatically receive $2000 or $2500 or more per month from Social Security which is far from the actual reality of the average check in 2019, for example, being $1461 per month....and that's before the Medicare amount of $135 or $144 per month is removed from it......
and that a large number of Social Security recipients receive way below the average of $1461. And the average Social Security check in 2017 was $1300.
You haven't heard about Medicare fraud by doctors and other health providers which is rampant to the tune of billions of dollars every year?
I'm sure you must have heard how a good number of doctors and other health providers are ripping off the Medicare system rampantly which results in tremendous waste of Medicare dollars.....and into the billions.
Fraud has been around since the ancient days of the money changers ....it is what it is and there will always be those who scam any system
Adding a little bit more to the above insightful post (matisse12).
I worked for a large corporation for many years and after a few years started to receive statements showing me what my retirement income would be if I worked to a certain age and put in a certain number of years. It always looked so good to me, never worried.
But they didn't add to those statements that there would be massive layoffs, forced retirements well before that magic number happened (age+years service). This did happen to me and so many others. It really wrecked any future thoughts or reality of a nice retirement.
Just a word of warning to those who may feel confident their retirement will go well. Remember to take care of yourself first, savings accounts, investments, etc. are to be taken seriously.
I'ts the only increase I get. My pension has no COLA at all, and will gradually get smaller and smaller compared to living costs.
We are starting to feel the pinch of such things as tv and internet---which for us have to come in through cable or DTV. Food prices and vitamins and herbs necessary for quality of life have already begun to rise to the point we notice it.
And so we start to delve into assets to compensate.
This year one of husband’s pensions gets a decrease because the FED BCBS premium goes up $17, but his pension only goes up about $6-7. This is the same as negative increase. Heck, I’m not complaining, just thought I mention this here.
You haven't heard about Medicare fraud by doctors and other health providers which is rampant to the tune of billions of dollars every year?
<snip>
Lots of your hard-earned Medicare dollars are tremendously wasted by health care providers who are fraudulent in their billing practices, greedy set-ups, pushing unneeded procedures to bill and bilk, and being unscrupulous.
Yes, I'm aware of that, from multiple information sources- but this thread isn't about reasons for the increase in Medicare premiums.
There are a few other retirement type forums where numbers are given and discussed with objectivity rather than emotion.
When I reply to any threads here I leave out numbers as it seems to offend a few posters.
Are there really that many questions/situations that require you to cite exact figures? If not, then yes, it's a humble-brag.
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