Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 266-167 to advance the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (H.R. 1314), which includes key health care provisions. Included in the deal is an agreement that will lessen, but not eliminate, a premium increase for about 15 million Medicare beneficiaries.
According to the New York Times, some Medicare beneficiaries were facing an increase of more than 50 percent in their standard monthly premiums from the current amount of $105 to about $159. Instead, the basic Medicare premium would rise in January to $120 a month for about 30 percent of beneficiaries. The annual deductible, now $147, would increase to $167 for all beneficiaries, rather than the $223 projected under current law.
About 70 percent of Medicare beneficiaries will not see any increase in their Medicare premiums because of a provision of federal law that links premiums to Social Security benefits, which will be frozen in 2016 after a year of unusually low inflation.
Since most Medicare beneficiaries will not pay higher premiums next year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury will provide an infusion of revenue to Part B of Medicare, which covers doctors’ services, outpatient hospital services and some home health care. To repay the loan from the Treasury, Medicare beneficiaries will have to pay $3 a month more in premiums until 2021.
The budget agreement also would extend the two-percentage-point reduction in Medicare payments to physicians and hospitals through the end of a 10-year budget, which will fund an estimated $25.8 billion of the budget deal.
The deal now heads to the Senate, where it is expected to be approved.
