No, I already received notification more than a month ago that there would be no COLA increase for next year and probably the year after that.
If you check the figures, there is no way that the CPI-W index would increase over August and September to increase the third quarter average over last year's average, of 215.495 that provided a 5.6% average.
This is not about the COLA, this is about the LYING that is coming out of the GOVERNMENT. This issue is a Recovery? vs truth? issue. Seniors will understand this, it’s a pocketbook issue. Especially if the GOV raises the Part B premiums of Medicare. That would be an actual REDUCTION of benes.
Obama has no control of the formula or the COLA. But if people are as ignorant about how the COLA is calculated as you are (and I don't mean ignorant in a pejorative sense), then that is going to be a real big problem for Obama because the seniors will be blaming him for it. We are probably going to see two years without increases because Obama's stimulus package will cause the economy to be stagnate or deflationary. The Japanese experienced something like that in the 1990s for a decade.
And you point out correctly that if the Part B contributions go up, as they are wont to do because they are tied to actual costs [unlike Medicare A and SS], then there will probably be an increase. More and more Americans are entering into Medicare, almost a million a year, as the baby boomer cohort ages. By 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older or about double what it is now.
So Obama is going to be suffering a double whammy come the 2010 midterms. Seniors will have had no COLAs for two years and an increase in the Medicaid Part B deduction. And they will blame Obama even though he has no control over it. That's good for us. You can bet Obama and the Dems will be frantic trying to explain how the system works and why they are not responsible. LOL.
I think the Seniors should be aware of this . Some are living , just barely, on this fixed income. Plus the BBoomers are notorious for our lack of savings etc.
Just think of the absolute terror in the minds of seniors say 70 + that couldn’t work even as greeters at Walmart. This is NOT good, in fact this whole administration is Evil (as Sarah would say)
Destroying the jobs of the 20- to 60+ age group. Taxing business into oblivion, attacking Seniors on Health Care and The Cola issue shows the precarious nature of their fixed incomes. Unthinkable National Debt..on and on and on.
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No offense taken, that’s why I ask questions I like to learn. Thank You.