Letter misstated facts about Medicare
Elke Trescott in a recent letter to Fence post states that “Medicare premiums will increase a whopping 100 percent by 2014” and cites Obamacare as the reason. This is patently false and shows that Trescott does not have a basic understanding of how Medicare works.
Medicare beneficiaries as a group are required to pay a fourth of the cost of running Medicare. Therefore, annual premiums are set at a figure calculated to achieve that level of revenue. No provision of the health care legislation passed during the Obama administration sets Medicare premium rates.
The standard monthly premiums for Part B Medicare currently is $99.90 which is less than last year’s premium of $115.40. The most recent report of the system’s trustees projects the 2013 premium will be $100.50 and the 2014 premium will return to the 2011 rates of $115.40.
The Herald does no service to its readers when it allows information that is easily checked and erroneous to be printed in the paper even if it is the writer’s opinion. Medicare rates are fact, not opinion.
M. Gorun
Libertyville