Читать книгу Medicare For Dummies - Barry Patricia, Patricia Barry - Страница 55

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting the scoop on Medicare premiums, deductibles, and co-payments

Shelling out higher premiums if your income is over a certain level

Understanding why you may pay higher premiums than other people in certain years

Continuing to pay Medicare taxes when you’re already receiving Medicare benefits

What will Medicare cost you, and how much will it save you? That’s the killer question for people just coming into the program. In a way, the answer really depends on where you started out. Did you have low-cost insurance from an employer when you were working? Then Medicare may seem expensive in comparison. Were you paying through the nose for an individual policy that didn’t actually provide much coverage? Or perhaps you just couldn’t find insurance that you could afford? In those cases, Medicare probably seems like the promised land.

This point bears repeating: Medicare isn’t free. Some people do think that the Medicare payroll taxes they pay while working will net them totally free health care after they hit 65. Sorry, not so. In fact, on average, Medicare is said to cover only about half of beneficiaries’ total health-care costs if they have no extra insurance.

In this chapter, I explain the way in which all the various costs of Medicare — premiums, deductibles, and co-payments — may hit your pocket in each of the parts of Medicare. I also go into detail about the higher-income premiums for Part B and Part D because you need to know whether they affect you and, if so, by how much. (However, you may be able to lower some of those costs, a topic I delve into in Chapter 4.) Finally, I explain why some people may pay different premiums than others in certain years and the instances when you need to pay Medicare taxes while receiving Medicare benefits.