Letter on Medicare reflects scare tactics

In response to Elke M. Trescott (“Know what will happen to Medicare,” July 17), she erroneously stated that Medicare premiums will increase 100 percent by 2014 under the Affordable Care Act. This misinformation was disseminated in a mass email circulating since before the 2010 elections. It has no basis in fact. The AARP website explains that the official formula for determining Part B premiums was established by Congress decades ago. It is calculated on the level of Medicare health care costs in the previous year, and is predicated on the basis of the government paying 75 percent of Part B costs and beneficiaries paying 25 percent.

The Affordable Care Act does not affect this in any way. The law does, however, provide a vehicle that will reduce Medicare costs over time while maintaining the current level of benefits. If this is successful, Medicare premiums would either stay the same or go down.

Please, everyone, try not to react to political scare tactics before checking the facts.

Evelyn Lush

Hoffman Estates