Medicare Premiums to Rise 13.5%
The monthly Medicare premium paid by most older Americans will increase by 13.5 percent next year, Bush administration officials said today.

The premium for Medicare Part B, which covers physician services, outpatient hospital services, durable medical equipment and some home health care, will go up $7.90, to $66.60 a month, for 2004.

Most Medicare beneficiaries do not pay a premium for Part A services, which includes coverage of inpatient hospital stays, because they have 40 quarters of Medicare-covered employment. The Part A deductible, however, will rise by $36, to $876 in 2004.

The Health and Human Services Department, which administers the Medicare program, will announce the new premium and deductible rates on Thursday.

The rates are updated annually according to formulas set in law. Under the formulas, the Part B premium must cover 25 percent of the Medicare program's estimated costs for enrollees who are 65 and older. General tax dollars cover the other 75 percent of the costs.

About 95 percent of Medicare's 41.7 million beneficiaries are enrolled in Part B.

Washington Post

the middle class is being destroyed. with every utterance of the leaders of our country, it becomes clearer and clearer every day. destroy the middle class, and not feel guilty about it is nothing but evil. because America was built for the middle class.

everybody talks about how people should 'quit whining' about paying more for their healthcare, pay more for their gas, pay more for their clothes. yet those same 'people' whine about raising the minimum wage.

those same 'people' don't get it. it's not how much one pays. it's the burden created by how much one pays. this is something a real, a REAL compassionate conservative would understand. Sadly, there aren't many of those left today.