Premium Fairness
A bill that would keep premium rates at 2009 levels for CSRS retirees enrolled in Medicare is languishing in the Senate.
As any avid C-SPAN viewer knows, Congress moves very slowly. But life outside the Capitol moves on, even if legislative action stalls -- a reality with which some federal retirees are all too familiar.
A bill that would correct what supporters say is an inequity in the Civil Service Retirement System is languishing in the Senate Finance Committee because of a block by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. In September, the House overwhelmingly passed the Medicare Premium Fairness Act, which aims to give CSRS retirees, among others, some relief from higher rates in 2010 by suspending a quirk in the current Medicare Part B premium system.
According to current law, premium increases for Medicare Part B, the buy-in Medicare program which covers outpatient care and other needs, are limited by annual cost-of-living increases in Social Security benefits. With the recession curbing inflation, the Social Security Administration announced earlier this year that there would be no cost-of-living increase in 2010. Therefore, premiums for most Medicare Part B enrollees will not rise next year.
So far, so good. But CSRS was created before the government established Social Security, so CSRS retirees do not receive Social Security benefits and thus are not affected by those cost-of-living increases. That means the premium rates for CSRS retirees enrolled in Medicare Part B will continue to rise in 2010. Since most of the population is held harmless against possible increases because of their enrollment in Social Security, CSRS retirees and others outside the Social Security system will bear the brunt of paying for everyone else through increased premiums, which will rise from $96 per month to $110 or more per month.
The legislation would mitigate this effect for one year by debiting $2.8 billion from the Medicare Improvement Fund to freeze premiums at 2009 levels for everyone, including CSRS retirees. H.R. 3631 also would help many others in the same situation, including state and local government workers, lower-income Medicare enrollees under Medicaid, higher-income Medicare enrollees, and new Medicare enrollees.
Meanwhile, Medicare bills are going out. Many CSRS retirees already have been notified that their premiums are going up in 2010. Even if the legislation were passed before the end of the congressional session, it likely would take the government months to implement.
Pointing to high-income Medicare enrollees and those with Medicaid coverage, Coburn said most of those affected don't need the help.
"We are going to take $2.8 billion from our kids or from future Medicare payments -- one way or the other, we are going to steal it from our kids -- to fix a problem for 5 percent of the people who are on Medicare or will be on Medicare," Coburn said on the Senate floor in October. It's not only Republicans who agreed with him. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., also opposed the bill, likening it to freezing billionaire Ross Perot's Medicare premiums.
To supporters of the bill, such as the National Active and Retired Federal Employee Association, it's a matter of fairness. "Government employees who do not receive Social Security are being singled out, and are subsidizing the cost of others," said NARFE legislative director Daniel Adcock.
Adcock said he still was hopeful that something could be done so that at least half the 2010 premiums could be altered, but noted there's little indication the Senate will pass the bill anytime soon. At the very least, it will be delayed until after senators vote on the massive health care reform bill. Adcock said if the Senate doesn't pass the bill by the end of the year, it might have to go back to the House, stalling it even further.
"We're hearing that the political will to act on it in the Senate has been waning," Adcock said.