Why am I paying twice for the same thing? Medicare payments were deducted from every paycheck I ever received. Yet, since turning 65, I am again being charged to the tune of $170 per month! Not optional and deducted from my Social Security. The Social Security ripoff is bad enough without it being plundered by this double payment. There should be NO CHARGE for Medicare for eligible participants.
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Good question. I thought only Social Security was taken out of your check but currently, the FICA tax is 7.65 percent of your gross taxable income for both the employee and the employer. The Social Security rate is 6.2 percent, up to an income limit of $137,000 and the Medicare rate is 1.45 percent, regardless of the amount of income earned.
I did not know that. Thanks, you have my vote.
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I truly believe our seniors need FREE healthcare (including drug plans, dental, and vision. IF we can give young adults medicaid without any payment required why would we take most of the social security payment for our elderly in health care fees? Yes, I know some get medicaid to help, but some do not. If youāre under $50K or so minimum income, you should not pay for it when other young folks who are able bodied get theirs free. PERIOD.
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Ponzi scheme for the political class.
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I agree.
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So, youāre saying a total of 15.3% is deducted from these checks?
Is so, this is another ripoff of Americans and a testament to the inefficiencies of a bloated government. No excuse for this!
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Medicare payments are deducted from paychecks to pay for the medical care of current retirees not for the person paying. Social Security is also current workers paying for those that are currently retired not for you at retirement. I know it has not been marketed quite like that, but it is what it is.
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I am retired. Who is paying for my medical care? I am. What was my monthly social security amount based on? The amount that I paid in.
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How about being fully covered by VA health care and still have to pay that rip off price. I donāt even need medicare because they say it is double dipping into the federal wallet. So why am i paying??
Taxpayers are paying for your Medicare.
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I agree! Itās gone up to $185 a month for me. I could buy private insurance for that.
Your response is a bit muddled, Ms. Lowe, with all due respect.
You paid into social security and medicare based on what you earned.
Your retirement and medicare benefits are based on rates set by the SSA that take into account what you paid in but also take into account your age when filing for benefits. If your benefits were based on the amount you paid in they would be exhausted after only a few years. If you have the records, go back and sum the amounts you paid to FICA every year. Apply some mythical average rate of return from a finance textbook if you like. Iāll wager that you will come up with a number that will be exhausted (if it hasnāt already been) by benefits paid before you die. That means that you are receiving benefits paid by current contributors to the scheme.
I, too, am retired. Iāve been receivng SS benefits for 20 years. I paid the maximum for about 40 years before retiring, and some amount short of the maximum for about 10 years prior. Only by investing the amount I paid in with Warren Buffet would I have made enough to fund what I have withdrawn.
What I would like to see is a total reform of the system. The first reform would be to take congress out of the game of ss benefits, which they use as both a cudgel and and carrot. The system should be separate and apart from the federal budget. The benefits fund should be managed like an annuity. The fund could be invested in very secure places like t-bills for the most part. I could support a system requiring 80% of the fund in low-risk funds and 20% in growth stocks.
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TINSTAAFL
Look it up if you donāt know what it means.
Instead of looking for the govt to provide āfreeā anything, we should be looking at reducing the overall costs of health care in the US. Providers almost have a license to print money. Too much of the income derived from health care is tax exempt. Institutional providers have a great deal of operational control via CMS but nowhere near enough financial control. Huge sums are wasted. The system is overburdened with red tape. Insurance providers control or greatly influence something called the āstandard of careā and pay for nothing not included therein. Doctors are required to adhere to the industryās āstandard of careā. This creates rents for medical supplies and drugs providers. By manipulating the āstandard of careā rules (euphemistically called āguidelinesā), insurers and providers scratch each otherās backs. Look at what pharma has done? Their products are protected against lawsuits. Demand for them is almost totally inelastic: they charge what they want to charge with only the faintest of market inhibitions. They spend so much on advertising and political funding that they have the media and congress captive to their wishes. Any media that opposes them loses their revenue which has become the largest revenue source to the industry. Any politician who opposes them is coerced by their party to conform because pharma funds both the parties and individual politicians directly. That is one industry that needs to smashed and totally reformed based on free market principles with regulatory contraints on advertising and subject to tort claims for damages instead of being protected by federal law.
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Thatās why it should be OPTIONAL, not free. You should have some choice whether to āinvestā in Medicare or something else. If there is a minimum coverage our indebted country can afford, then sure make that available to all for free.
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All your Medicare tax payments went to pay for your Part A, hospitalization. Part B, the doctor visit part is the premium you pay monthly out of your Social Security. That premium is based on income. I know people whoās Part B premium is north of $400 a month. Be thankful you donāt pay more.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Medicare cannot be free. It pays money to doctors and hospitals. What you are suggesting is that the cost of Medicare should be paid out of FICA only, not out of social security checks later. Thatās a valid desire. That said, there is something even more egregious. If you donāt sign up for Part B the moment you are eligible, you will pay a penalty of 10% for every additional year before you sign up. For me, that almost doubles my payment. Obamacare penalties were repealed, but this one was not. That is not fair, nor is it equal protection of the laws in my opinion. That needs to be repealed. If the Obamacare penalty care was repealed, our penalty should also be repealed.
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Part of the problems with the Medicare system are the same problems with the Social Security System - They were formed when each couple was having more than two children, so 'taxes ā could remain stable. Elon was right, having more babies would at least alleviate the problem to some degree. Now that we have descended below replacement rate, either the young people we do have must pay extremely high tax rates, benefits must be curbed, or retirement ages must be increased (or a combinations of the above). I agree , you should not have to pay twice for the services, and Iām not sure what the solution should be. Ending the Federal Reserve would help with inflation, but barring an increase in the birthrate to pre- Social Security founding levels and some serious cuts in other aspects of government (Congressperson benefits and foreign aid, for two examples), I donāt see this problem being solved anytime soon.
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Sounds like you got hit with IRMAA. Funny how CPAs and Financial Advisors never talk about this stuff. I am always helping people plan and prepare for this so they can avoid it.
I agree it should be overhauled. It should be done away with, even social security. Government employees get big fat pensions. I know someone who worked for the state of NY and he told me he is basically only earning 10k less being retired, and he made easy a 6 figure income. He no longer has to pay for a subway pass and parking at the train station and train pass and he moved to FL, paid cash for a condo. FL can be expensive but compared to NY, he basically got a raise. What do we get on SS? If we havenāt saved enough in a 401k, we are sunk. Government workers, many are getting both. As a matter of fact, I got notice that the people who didnāt get SS because of their pensions, or they got a discounted rate, they are all getting that in back pay and a raise while still living off their big fat pensions. I agree SS and Medicare should go. But not for us who are stuck on it. My medicare went up $10 a month while our COL was a joke. For young people, let them keep their money in a 401k. Give me all my money I put in. I could take that and put it in a 401k and could probably do better with the interest, especially adding it to what I have. I could probably do better. Medicare sucks anyway but lucky I am healthy and plan to stay that way. It is a Ponzi scheme. And if employers didnāt have to pay all the taxes, maybe they could offer something better to employees when they retire. I was self-employed, so it wouldnāt have mattered to me. But 1099 employees get the most screwed unless you make a good 6-figures. I never did and the taxes I paid, if I added that up, I could have lived off of it. I am talking all my taxes. FICA, I paid the full amount. I was my owner employer. They have been stealing our money for years. If no one paid an income tax and property taxes, we would all be a lot better off. No more taxes!!!
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Retirees should not pay any taxes or insurance.
Theyāve paid their dues already.
Property tax and income tax and insurance should be waived for all retirees over 60 in my opinion.