Medicare beneficiaries will see their Part B premiums go down for the first time in more than a decade, President Biden said during a White House event on Tuesday.
Monthly Part B premiums, which are currently set at $ 170.10 in 2022, will decline to $ 164.90 in 2023 – a $ 5.20 a month savings, or about $ 64 a year, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The annual deductible for Part B will be $ 226, down $ 7 from $ 233 in 2022.
“It means more money in their pockets,” Biden said of the millions of seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare. Biden was at a White House event discussing changes to Medicare under the Inflation Reduction Act passed in August.
See: Medicare beneficiaries – here’s the help you’ll get from the Inflation Reduction Act in the new year, and in the future
The decrease can be attributed to previously higher estimated projections for spending on Part B services and a new Alzheimer’s drug called Aduhelm, CMS said. The overestimate led to a larger reserve in the Part B account, which the government passed on to cut any premium increase for beneficiaries, the agency said.
Medicare Part B covers medical services, such as doctor and outpatient hospital visits, certain medical equipment and other needs not covered by Part A, which is hospital inpatient coverage. Part B premiums depend on beneficiaries’ modified adjusted gross income (for example, a single taxpayer earning $ 97,000 or less in 2022 would pay $ 164.90 per month, while someone who earns between $ 153,000 and $ 183,000 a year would pay $ 428.60 per month, according to Medicare.gov).
Medicare’s annual enrollment period for coverage beginning in 2023 opens on Oct. 15.