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AARP, a lobby for older Americans, praised the agreement on Tuesday, though it said the legislation “will not provide a long-term solution to the funding challenge facing the Social Security disability insurance trust fund.”
Without action by Congress, some Medicare beneficiaries were facing an increase of more than 50 percent in their standard monthly premiums, to about $159, from the current amount of a little less than $105.
Instead, if the budget agreement is approved by Congress, the basic Medicare premium would rise in January to $120 a month for about 30 percent of beneficiaries. The annual deductible, now $147, would increase to about $167 for all beneficiaries, rather than the $223 projected under current law.
About 70 percent of Medicare beneficiaries will not see any increase in their Medicare premiums next year because of a provision of federal law that links premiums to Social Security benefits, which will be frozen in 2016 after a year of unusually low inflation — a byproduct of plummeting gasoline prices. For the third time in 40 years, Social Security will not provide a cost-of-living adjustment in benefits next year.
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