Medicare – Medicare covers people 65 and over and certain people under 65 with a disability, and people with end-stage renal disease.
Medicare Basics
Medicare Part A helps cover your inpatient care in hospitals, critical access hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. It also covers hospice care and some home health care. Medicare Part B helps cover your doctors’ services, outpatient hospital care, and some other medical services that Medicare Part A doesn’t cover, such as some of the services of physical and occupational therapists, and some home health care. Medicare Part B helps pay for these covered services and supplies when they are medically necessary. For more coverage information go to Your Medicare Coverage at Medicare.gov.
The following is a listing of the Medicare premiums that will be in effect in 2012:
Medicare Premiums for 2012:
Part A: (Hospital Insurance) Premium
- Most people do not pay a monthly Part A premium because they or a spouse has 40 or more quarters of Medicare-covered employment.
- The Part A premium is $248.00 per month for people having 30-39 quarters of Medicare-covered employment.
- The Part A premium is $451.00 per month for people who are not otherwise eligible for premium-free hospital insurance and have less than 30 quarters of Medicare-covered employment.
Part B: (Medical Insurance) Premium
The standard Medicare Part B monthly premium will be $99.90 in 2012, a $15.50 decrease over the 2011 premium of $115.40. However, most Medicare beneficiaries were held harmless in 2011 and paid $96.40 per month. The 2012 premium represents a $3.50 increase for them.
In 2012, Social Security monthly payments to enrollees will increase by 3.6 percent. The dollar increase in benefit checks is expected to be large enough on average to cover the increase in the Part B premium of $3.50 that most beneficiaries will experience. For those who were paying the standard premium of $115.40, their benefits checks will only increase.
As required in the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, beginning in 2007 the Part B premium a beneficiary pays each month is based on his or her annual income. Specifically, if a beneficiary’s “modified adjusted gross income” is greater than the legislated threshold amounts ($85,000 in 2012 for a beneficiary filing an individual income tax return or married and filing a separate return, and $170,000 for a beneficiary filing a joint tax return) the beneficiary is responsible for a larger portion of the estimated total cost of Part B benefit coverage.
In addition to the standard Part B premium, affected beneficiaries must pay an income-related monthly adjustment amount. These income-related amounts were phased-in over three years, beginning in 2007. About 4 percent of current Part B enrollees are expected to be subject to these higher premium amounts.
The Social Security Administration handles Medicare enrollments. If you want to drop your Part B or have more questions about enrolling in or dropping Medicare Part B, you should call the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213, or visit their web site.
Need more info on Medicare? Visit www.medicare.gov.
