| I just got some email from AARP that stated that the Medicare will have largest COLA [cost of living adjustment] increase in 26 years for 2009. It will be 5.8%...that's a start. This is good news [yes, I am old enuff to get AARP ]...but my first question was regarding the current budget deficit, where will they get the money? The article states there will be a raise among certain individual's payment:
Social Security Hike Largest in 26 Years
By Carole Fleck - October 16, 2008 - AARP Bulletin Today More than 34.9 million older Americans will get a 5.8 percent increase in their Social Security benefits next year—the largest hike in 26 years. Rising inflation drove the 2009 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to greatly surpass this year’s 2.3 percent raise. The 5.8 percent adjustment is the highest since 1982. And in more welcome news, the standard Medicare premium for 2009 will remain unchanged from $96.40. Premiums will rise only for single people earning more than $85,000 annually, or for couples earning more than $170,000. Still, recipients won’t come out ahead by much, says Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College. Because Medicare Part B premiums—deducted automatically from Social Security benefits—generally rise faster than the COLA, “the net benefit will not keep pace with inflation,” she wrote in a brief issued today. From 2000 to 2007, Medicare premiums rose faster than the COLA—9.8 percent per year compared to 2.7 percent, she pointed out in the brief, which was coauthored by Dan Muldoon, a CRR research associate. David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP, called the COLA “a welcome development” in light of the economic downturn and the erosion of people’s retirement savings, but cautioned that it would only go so far.
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