Medicare Premiums

WASHINGTON -- The Senate effort to charge wealthy retirees higher Medicare premiums gained fresh momentum yesterday as President Clinton reaffirmed his general support for the proposal. But the politically sensitive House remained gun-shy.Meeting at the White House with congressional leaders of both parties, Clinton said, "On principle, I support means-testing," adding that he will work with the leadership to try to resolve problems associated with collecting the premium."I would hope we can agree to some sort of premium that's enforceable, and that's fair and that doesn't drive people out of the Medicare system," he said.

Last week, Social Security beneficiaries learned their benefits would go up 3.6 percent next year. That's about $43 a month for the typical check of $1,186, according to the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare. But the concern was that increases in Medicare Part B premiums would eat up that raise in benefits. The Department of Health and Human Services announced today that the premium would only go up by $3.50. That means, according to the national committee, seniors over the age of 65 who paid $96.40 a month for Medicare Part B will pay $99.90 next year.

WASHINGTON -- The latest five-year blueprint for cutting the federal deficit would require less sacrifice by the nation's senior citizens, farmers and users of home heating oil than the original budget plan rejected by the House last Friday.But that still means the elderly would have to pay more for Medicare health insurance than they do now, lawmakers and budget analysts said yesterday.The latest plan -- approved early yesterday by the House and to be voted on late last night by the Senate -- also would lay the foundation for higher income tax rates for affluent taxpayers and, for investors, a lower rate at which capital gains are taxed.

After two years without seeing an increase in their Social Security checks, more than 59 million retirees and other beneficiaries can expect a bump up in benefits next year. The Social Security trustees' annual report released this month estimates that the cost-of-living adjustment in next year's checks will be 0.7 percent. The increase, which will be announced in October, could be higher, depending on where prices head in the coming months. Still, experts say, retirees could see all or some of that raise eaten up by higher Medicare premiums.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's proposal to triple Medicare premiums for upper-income senior citizens and cut the program's budget has drawn fire on Capitol Hill, where some lawmakers warn of a looming national health-care crisis."

WASHINGTON -- Republican leaders in Congress made a small concession yesterday to President Clinton in their high-stakes budget showdown, but there was no sign of an end to the partial shutdown of the government that has caused 800,000 federal workers to be furloughed.The Republicans proposed an amended stopgap spending bill that would resume full government operations and return furloughed workers to their jobs. The bill is similar to the measure the president vetoed Monday night, but drops the increase in Medicare premiums to which Mr. Clinton had objected.

After two years without seeing an increase in their Social Security checks, more than 59 million retirees and other beneficiaries can expect a bump up in benefits next year. The Social Security trustees' annual report released this month estimates that the cost-of-living adjustment in next year's checks will be 0.7 percent. The increase, which will be announced in October, could be higher, depending on where prices head in the coming months. Still, experts say, retirees could see all or some of that raise eaten up by higher Medicare premiums.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton will punish health insurance companies that, in violation of a 1996 law, deny coverage to sick people by excluding them from the lucrative insurance market for federal employees, administration officials said yesterday.The law was intended to make insurance more readily available to millions of Americans who change or lose their jobs.But federal and state officials said they saw worrisome signs that some health insurance companies were circumventing the law. They said some companies discouraged sales to eligible individuals, charged very high premiums or penalized insurance agents selling coverage to customers with pre-existing medical problems.

WASHINGTON -- The deficit-reduction package may have won the endorsement of President Bush and congressional leaders, but most members of the Maryland delegation remain undecided, with a proposed increase in Medicare payments their chief complaint.Only Representative Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md.-5th, a member of the House leadership, and Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, D-Md., said they could support the package. Both men saidthe alternative to the budget accord would be automatic spending cuts, which would be devastating to the economy.

PRESIDENT CLINTON is clobbering the Republicans in the blame game over the partial shutdown of government operations. No way, he says, will he agree that the current $46.10 monthly premium senior citizens pay for Medicare Part B will be increased to $53. He wants the payment lowered to $42.50, as current law provides.Mr. Clinton's stand is wildly popular with the old folks even though higher Social Security benefits next year would more than outweigh the projected GOP increase in Medicare charges.

Lincoln Emery isn't panicked yet about the $5 monthly increase in his Medicare Part B premiums this year. After taxes, he's receiving about $38 in cost-of-living adjustments to his Social Security and military pension benefits. But as the premiums escalate, the 77-year-old Hamptonville, N.C., resident worries that if he is lucky enough live into his 80s or 90s, those annual increases will disappear, and his income of roughly $22,000 will be eroded by inflation. "I own my home free and clear and only have to take care of myself and my dog, so it isn't hitting me too bad yet," he said.

WASHINGTON -- When Medicare mistakenly sent premium refunds to 230,000 people who had signed up for prescription drug coverage, the Bush administration said the error resulted from a rare computer glitch. But government records and interviews with federal officials show it was the latest example of a strained, often dysfunctional relationship between two of the government's biggest programs. For more than a year, officials who run the two programs, Social Security and Medicare, have struggled to mesh their computer systems so that Medicare premiums are correctly withheld from Social Security checks, and low-income people get the extra help to which they are entitled.

WASHINGTON - More than 47 million elderly and disabled people will receive a 2.7 percent cost-of-living increase - an average of about $25 a month - in their Social Security benefits starting in January, the government announced yesterday. But for many of those who participate in Part B of Medicare, which covers visits to doctors' offices, almost half of the benefit increase will disappear before they ever see it. The government announced last week that the Medicare premium, which typically is deducted from Social Security checks, would rise by $11.60 a month next year.

IT'S ALL VERY well for presidential candidates to be squawking over potential terrorist attacks. But there is a real danger looming that isn't getting nearly as much attention, though its impact is likely to be far broader - the soaring cost of health care. The Bush administration deftly buried the news on Labor Day weekend that Medicare premiums will rise next year by 17 percent to $78.20 a month. That's a lot of money for retirees on fixed incomes - often elderly widows living exclusively on Social Security - and it doesn't even buy drugs.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton will punish health insurance companies that, in violation of a 1996 law, deny coverage to sick people by excluding them from the lucrative insurance market for federal employees, administration officials said yesterday.The law was intended to make insurance more readily available to millions of Americans who change or lose their jobs.But federal and state officials said they saw worrisome signs that some health insurance companies were circumventing the law. They said some companies discouraged sales to eligible individuals, charged very high premiums or penalized insurance agents selling coverage to customers with pre-existing medical problems.

SAN DIEGO -- The woman introducing Lt. Gov. Gray Davis to this lunchtime audience of feminist lawyers says he is unlike some men, who vote right but then "retreat to their cigar-and-brandy male-bonding sessions." Mr. Davis, trying to become California's fourth Democratic governor in this century and the first since 1982, assures his listeners that in his 20s cigars were occasions of sin, but he has put away childish things.He is determined to rise to the governorship on the steppingstones of his dead self, but today, he says, he will not stoop to delivering "a political speech in the classic sense."

Lincoln Emery isn't panicked yet about the $5 monthly increase in his Medicare Part B premiums this year. After taxes, he's receiving about $38 in cost-of-living adjustments to his Social Security and military pension benefits. But as the premiums escalate, the 77-year-old Hamptonville, N.C., resident worries that if he is lucky enough live into his 80s or 90s, those annual increases will disappear, and his income of roughly $22,000 will be eroded by inflation. "I own my home free and clear and only have to take care of myself and my dog, so it isn't hitting me too bad yet," he said.

Washington. It now seems certain, no matter who wins the presidency in November, that affluent older people are going to contribute a lot more money for Medicare, and pay more taxes on their Social Security payments.That is as it should be. Aged citizens fortunate enough to have large incomes in their retirement should eschew greed and welcome changes that take economic burdens off their children and grandchildren.Democrat Bill Clinton said Tuesday on NBC's ''Today'' show that he wants to raise the portion of Social Security benefits (now 50 percent)

WASHINGTON -- As negotiators worked to hammer out final details of balanced budget legislation, President Clinton appealed to wary Republicans yesterday to support a risky plan to charge higher Medicare premiums for wealthier retirees.Responding to Republican fears that the powerful elderly lobby would punish lawmakers for scaling back Medicare benefits, Clinton told reporters that he "would be happy to defend the vote of any member of Congress -- Democrat or Republican -- who votes for this."

WASHINGTON -- The Senate effort to charge wealthy retirees higher Medicare premiums gained fresh momentum yesterday as President Clinton reaffirmed his general support for the proposal. But the politically sensitive House remained gun-shy.Meeting at the White House with congressional leaders of both parties, Clinton said, "On principle, I support means-testing," adding that he will work with the leadership to try to resolve problems associated with collecting the premium."I would hope we can agree to some sort of premium that's enforceable, and that's fair and that doesn't drive people out of the Medicare system," he said.