Medicare Premium Issue Arising

The relatively low inflation rate over the last year has raised the potential for CSRS retirees and certain other Medicare enrollees to pay premiums for Medicare Part B premiums in 2016 that would be higher than those paid by other enrollees. That’s due to a provision of law protecting those who pay Medicare premiums out of their Social Security benefits. The so-called “hold harmless” provision states that if the increase in a person’s Social Security benefit is not enough to cover the increase in the Part B premium, the premium is frozen; that’s a possibility given the count toward a January 2016 Social Security COLA, which is the same count used for federal retirement benefits (see below). If that provision kicks in, the entire cost of the Medicare premium increase is borne by those not covered by that protection, which comes to about 30 percent of those in the program.