Recent Medicare price hikes will leave America’s seniors “paying HUNDREDS more for the care they need,” according to Sen. Rick Scott, and President Joe Biden is the reason why.
Scott blamed Medicare’s price increases, for both premiums and deductibles, on Biden’s inflationary policies, which he described as a “reckless spending and socialist agenda.”
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said that premiums will increase15 percent, “from $148.50 in 2021 to $170.10 in 2022,” and deductibles will also increase 15 percent “from $203 in 2021 to $233 in 2022,” according to CMS’s press release.
CMS said that Medicare’s premium and deductible hikes will not hurt seniors because they will receive “a 5.9 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in their 2022 Social Security benefits.”
This means that “a retired worker who currently receives $1,565 per month from Social Security can expect to receive a net increase of $70.40 more per month after the Medicare Part B premium is deducted.”
Scott asked Biden and the Democratic Party which Americans benefit from heavy spending and high inflation.
“It’s clearly not families on fixed incomes, like mine growing up,” Scott said, “struggling to keep up with inflation and put food on the table with higher and higher costs.
“It’s definitely not our businesses facing higher costs,” he said, “and a supply chain crisis fueled by Biden’s failed policies and unconstitutional vaccine mandates.
“And it’s obviously NOT our seniors depending on Medicare,” Scott said.
In announcing the rise in Medicare premiums, CMS did not mention historic inflation as a factor but instead noted “statutory requirement to prepare for expenses, such as spending trends driven by COVID-19, and prior Congressional action in the Continuing Appropriations Act.”
In 2021, Congress limited Medicare’s premium increases, so seniors will face the tidal wave of the past year’s inflation all at once.
CMS also cited the “need to maintain a contingency reserve for unanticipated increases in health care spending, particularly certain drug costs,” as a reason for the cost hike.
Scott said that Americans “cannot allow this to move forward.”
“We need to be LOWERING health care and drug prices and strengthening this vital program for seniors and future generations, not crippling the system and leaving families to pay the cost,” he said.
“It’s now clearer than ever that Democrats don’t care who pays the price for their liberal wish list,” Scott said. “They have their blinders on, following Bernie Sanders’ socialist lead on an all-or-nothing multi trillion dollar tax-and-spending spree.”
