From the
Daytona Beach News Journal This year promises to be an exercise in stretching pennies for Larry Davis and 101,157 other seniors in Volusia and Flagler counties.
Like all the nation's retirees, the 70-year-old's Social Security check is going up 2.1 percent this year -- about $16.90 a month for him -- but his monthly Medicare costs are increasing six times that rate. Nearly half his cost-of-living raise from the government is spoken for. A 13.5 percent jump in his Medicare premium, now $66.60 a month, comes to $7.90 more per person. With $9 extra to meet other, rising costs, he's worried about losing ground overall.
"Everywhere I turn, everyone wants more money," said Davis, who also receives retirement benefits from the U.S. Army.
This is the largest Medicare premium rate increase since 1993, affecting about 41.7 million beneficiaries, most of them 65 and older. The bump in rates -- which policymakers agree is likely to continue for years -- has Davis, the grandfather of 12, steaming.
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You former hippie baby-boomers better get back to the protest line, pronto.
It's so simple. Unviersal health care for anyone over 65 and under 18. Do it. We can afford it. We're already paying for it. It's better than allowing Bush Inc. to launder the tax money through Halliburton etc.
BTW, the Daytona Beach News Journal is one of the best small town papers in the world.
Unembedded.com