Millions set to save on Medicare fees in ’23 in rare cost reduction
WASHINGTON — For the first time in a decade, Americans will pay less next year on monthly premiums for Medicare’s Part B plan, which covers routine doctors’ visits and other outpatient care.
The rare 3% decrease in monthly premiums — a savings of $5.20 for most — comes after millions of Medicare beneficiaries endured a tough year of high inflation and a dramatic increase to premiums this year. Most people on Medicare will pay $164.90 monthly for Part B coverage starting next year.
“(To) millions of seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare, that means more money in their pockets while still getting the care they need,” President Joe Biden said Tuesday.
The decrease will help offset last year’s $21.60 spike in monthly Part B costs, driven in large part by a new Alzheimer’s drug. Aduhelm, given intravenously in doctors’ offices, was introduced to the market last year with a $56,000 price tag. Medicare set strict limitations on the drug’s use earlier this year and the drugmaker has since cut the medication’s cost in half.
Medicare paid less for that drug than it expected this year, helping shore up reserves that allowed the agency to set the Part B premiums lower for 2023, the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services said Tuesday. Other Medicare services and items were lower than expected, too, but Medicare officials did not answer questions about details on those savings.
The lower Medicare premiums were announced just as roughly 66 million Americans are waiting to see how much their Social Security checks might increase next year. The cost-of-living increase to Social Security checks could be historic, roughly between 9% and 10%, according to analysts.
A libertarian group in California filed a legal challenge to President Joe Biden’s plan for student debt cancellation on Tuesday, calling it an illegal overreach that would increase state tax burdens for some Americans who get their debt forgiven.
The lawsuit, believed to be the first targeting Biden’s plan, was filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a Sacramento legal advocacy group. It was filed in federal court in Indiana, one of several states that plan to tax any student debt canceled by Biden’s plan.
“Congress did not authorize the executive branch to unilaterally cancel student debt,” said Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney at the foundation. He said it’s illegal for the executive branch to create the policy “by press release, and without statutory authority.”
The suit’s plaintiff is Frank Garrison, described as a public interest attorney who lives in Indiana and is employed by the libertarian group.
Biden’s plan would automatically cancel up to $20,000 of Garrison’s debt, which in turn would trigger an “immediate tax liability” from the state of Indiana, according to the suit. Under the debt forgiveness program he’s enrolled in now, canceled debt cannot be taxed.
US hunger plan: The Biden administration is laying out its plan to end hunger in the U.S. by 2030, including expanding monthly benefits that help low-income Americans buy food.
The administration, in a plan released Tuesday,
Student debt relief suit:
is also seeking to increase healthy eating and physical activity so that fewer people are afflicted with diabetes, obesity, hypertension and other diet-related diseases. It said it would work to expand Medicaid and Medicare access to obesity counseling and nutrition.
“The consequences of food insecurity and diet-related diseases are significant, far reaching, and disproportionately impact historically underserved communities,” Biden wrote in a memo outlining the White House strategy. “Yet, food insecurity and diet-related diseases are largely preventable, if we prioritize the health of the nation.”
Under the White House plan, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility would be expanded, children would get better access to free meals, and summer benefits would be extended to more schoolkids.
Such changes would require congressional approval.
Iran protests: A hard-line Iranian lawmaker Tuesday slammed female protesters who have taken off mandatory headscarves as prostitutes, doubling down on the government stance amid the dramatic demonstrations following the death of a 22-year-old woman detained by the country’s morality police.
The harsh language by Mahmoud Nabavian, a legislator from Tehran, was in sharp contrast to the appeal by a top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamadani, who on Sunday urged the government to listen to the people’s demands.
The fate of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman who died in custody after being detained by the morality police — because her headscarf was allegedly too loose — has ignited unrest across Iran. Protests have spread to at least 46 cities, including the capital of Tehran.
“These rioters are out to prostitute themselves,” Nabavian was quoted as
saying by Fararu, a news website. He suggested that taking off the hijab, or headscarf, was akin to being naked in public to attract male attention.
Nabavian blamed women and men taking part in the protests, saying they were guilty of “impurities” that need to be washed away.
Xi reappears: Chinese President Xi Jinping reappeared on state television Tuesday after a several-day absence from public view that sparked rumors about his political fortunes.
Xi, 69, was shown visiting a display at the Beijing Exhibition Hall.
Accompanied by Premier Li Keqiang and other top leaders, Xi, who is also head of the ruling Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army, viewed some of the displays and commented on China’s economic progress over the past decade.
The visit was Xi’s first appearance on television since he returned from a regional summit in Uzbekistan
last weekend.
China’s opaque system frequently gives rise to rumors of political infighting or attempted coups, despite the stable nature of the authoritarian surveillance state that cracks down on dissent.
Mountaineer missing: Nepalese rescuers were searching Tuesday for a famed U.S. ski climber a day after she fell off near the peak of the world’s eighth-highest mountain.
Hilaree Nelson, 49, was skiing down the 26,775foot summit with her partner Jim Morrison when she fell off the mountain, according to Jiban Ghimire of the Kathmandu-based Shangri-La Nepal Trek that organized and outfitted the expedition.
Bad weather hampered rescue efforts Monday. But visibility was good in improved weather conditions Tuesday while a helicopter searched for signs of the missing climber, Ghimire said.