As you no doubt know by now, the increase in the Medicare Part B premium for 2022 is the largest ever. As we previously reported, the large increase came about as a result of Medicare preparing to pay for the cost of a new drug that supposedly helps patients with Alzheimers disease.
However, in a new draft policy announced last week, Medicare will severely restrict the number of seniors who can access the drug at all because it plans to only cover the drug for patients participating in rigorous, agency-approved clinical trials.
While the draft policy has not yet gone into effect, now is the time to put pressure on to lower the Part B premium. First, the company that makes the drug cut its cost in half. Second, because Medicare will only cover patients in approved clinical trials, the number of people receiving the drug will be many fewer than previously estimated.
While the Part B premium increase is governed by administrative procedures put in place by law, Congress can pressure the Dept. of Health and Human Services to lower the premium given the changed conditions.
Again, since this is an election year, pressure from voters can have a real impact in this regard. So we urge you to contact your Senators and Representative and tell them there is no longer a need for the huge Part B Premium increase and that the monthly premium needs to be lowered and there should be a rebate of the excess premium paid by those enrolled in Part B for however many months they pay the excess premium.
