Ah, if you like your Medicare Advantage Plan, you can keep it … maybe, but it’s going to cost you more to do so. 😝 Premiums up 14%, out-of-pocket costs up 11%.😡😡
A new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation examines trends in the Medicare Advantage marketplace, including the choices available to Medicare beneficiaries in 2014, premium levels and other plan features.
Medicare beneficiaries on average will have 18 private Medicare Advantage plans available to them in 2014, a modest change from an average of 20 plans this year. This change reflects both new plans entering the market and old plans exiting it. If current Medicare Advantage enrollees do not change to a new plan in 2014, their average monthly premiums will rise by almost $5 per month, or 14 percent, to $39 per month.
The average out-of-pocket limits across all Medicare Advantage plans will climb 11 percent from $4,333 this year to $4,797 in 2014. The authors note that the uptick in monthly premiums and the diminished protections reflected in higher out-of-pocket limits may indicate a response by plans to the Affordable Care Act phased in payment reductions that align payments to plans more closely with traditional Medicare costs. 😰
You get what you pay for and there are always consequences … Despite what the politicians promise. Obamacare is a shell game merely moving costs from one place to another. In the final analysis, perhaps there really is no other way, but honesty would be refreshing.
- It’s what’s there you don’t see that will get you.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
I am able to keep my Humana Plan here in Florida, but many have lost them. I know ours will probably disappear by 2015.
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Not sure Mike if it is county sensitive.. Lakeland Regional I understand does not accept Humana. Our neighbor had to change carriers.
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As stated earlier – you can see why Seniors need more than 1.5% to keep up with rising costs. Don’t know if you noticed, but now that the 3rd quarter is over, the gas prices and food prices have risen as well, so what the government is basing the CPI on is a false actuality! I know we as seniors pay $104.90 for monthly Medicare premiums, plus any costs that a plan (Advantage plan) charges, however, co-pays for specialists have also increased, so we all are in need of a little more help! Thanks for bringing these facts to the American people’s attention
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But you see everyone feels they are entitled to more and where is it coming from? The Part B premium didn’t increase at all and only very modestly the year before. No matter what period the inflation is based on there will be things that increase after it is calculated. On the East Coast gas is still getting lower, not higher.
Dick
Richard D Quinn Quinnscommentary.com
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Don’t be misled by the COLA being calculated on the average of the third quarter. It is still an annual average because it is calculated from the third quarter of one year to the third quarter of the next year; it is still an annual average. If prices rise in the fourth quarter the adjustment will be made in the next cola adjustment. Where seniors may be getting short changed is that the calculation is made using what the Bureau of labor statistics calls CPI-W. It is approximately 39.2% housing, 18.7% transportation, 15.7% food and beverage, etc. These weights are supposed to represent the average “basket of goods” that wage earners consume. The problem is that seniors consume goods differently than the average wage earner; they spend considerably more on housing and health care (which have increased in price to a greater degree than other things in the economy) and less on other things. The BLS has created a new index called CPI-E (elderly) that estimates an average “basket of goods “ that seniors consume, however, the social security COLA is still calculated using CPI-W. Another problem is that there is discussion of using something called “chained CPI” which takes into consideration the fact that as prices rise, people substitute less expensive goods for more expensive goods which in the final outcome further reduces future COLAs. One thing to keep in mind is that social security is fiscally unsound now and future COLAs make it more so. The money for these COLAs have to be transferred from the young and unborn to keep you in what you think is your rightfully earned lifestyle.
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Although the CPI-E generally outpaced the official measures of inflation over the 1983–2011 timeframe, recent trends show different results. From 2006 to 2011, both the all-items CPI-E and the CPI-U rose at an average annual rate of 2.3 percent, while the CPI-W increased 2.4 percent. This turnaround was caused primarily by changes in the relative inflation rates of medical care and shelter, compared with the overall inflation rate. Specifically, the gap between medical care inflation and overall inflation has generally fallen since 2005, and shelter inflation has been rising slightly more slowly than overall inflation over the 2006–2011 period.
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