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Medicare checks of $90 face a $202.90 monthly premium

More than twenty million Medicare enrollees get one-time $90 payments, about two billion dollars in total, while the standard Part B premium sits at $202.90 a month.

On air: Hank Ledger, Brock Thunderson and Dr. Nina Byte on BBN This Morning
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Photo: Aciarium · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN
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Watch it as it aired: Hank Ledger, Brock Thunderson and Dr. Nina Byte on this story, from BBN This Morning at 7:27 AM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are Financial Times's, the jokes are ours.

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What BBN said about it

  1. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA $90 one-time Medicare payment is on the way for more than twenty million enrollees, and the standard monthly Part B premium is two hundred two dollars and ninety cents.

  2. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThe payments cost about two billion dollars, Fortune reports, and people on Medicare Advantage are excluded.

  3. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThe money comes from a fund Congress created in two thousand eight with two point two billion.

  4. Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistSo the forecast is ninety dollars of sunshine against a monthly premium that keeps climbing.

  5. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe premium is expected to rise to two hundred nine dollars and fifty cents next year. That's the number.

  6. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentSocial Security's cost-of-living raise for next year is three point six percent, which the agency says is seventy-five dollars extra a month.

  7. Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistSeventy-five?

  8. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentAnd younger retirees have it rough too.

  9. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentKFF Health News found adults fifty through sixty-four saw some of the steepest Obamacare cost jumps after subsidies expired.

  10. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentOne Rhode Island man says his premium tripled to twenty-four hundred sixty dollars.

  11. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThat's about a third of his income, he says. Republican strategist Gregg Keller says the issue stays relevant in the midterms, including among older voters.

  12. Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistMeanwhile an ABC poll says only twenty-eight percent are confident Trump would accept midterm results if Republicans lose.

  13. Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistA front is coming in, Hank, and it's pointing at November.

  14. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSixty-three percent of Republicans are confident he would. Just twenty-five percent are very confident. I'll take the ninety dollars and a sandwich.

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The story so far

  1. Axios-Ipsos poll: Medicare for All support surges · Axios
  2. Two-thirds want health care help, but not Medicare for All · New York Post
  3. Medicare Advantage plans shutting down, leaving millions without… · NPR
  4. Senate Democrats unveil new plans for strengthening Medicare · The Hill
  5. It's Time to Shop Medicare, and This Year, It's Extra Important · The New York Times
  6. Medicare checks of $90 face a $202.90 monthly premium (this story)

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