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2021 Medicare Board of Trustees Report

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The 2021 Medicare Board of Trustees Report is finally available after a delay lasting over 4 months. Per Congress there is a requirement that Trustees must release a report before or on April 1st.

Though the report is extremely late, like last year the Trustees have announced again that they are incapable of projecting estimates at this time.

In 2020 the reason was specifically due to Covid-19. The Trustees stated “The projections and analysis in this report do not reflect the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Medicare program. Given the uncertainty associated with these impacts, the Trustees believe that it is not possible to adjust the estimates accurately at this time.”

For the 2021 Report the Trustees are stating the reason for not being able to accurately project estimates is due “the possible effects of covering Aduhelm, the Alzheimer’s disease drug”.

The full quote from the report is “The projections and analysis in this report do not reflect the potential effects of Medicare coverage of Aduhelm, the Alzheimer’s disease drug that has been recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Given the uncertainty associated with these impacts, the Trustees believe that it is not possible to adjust the estimates accurately before a coverage determination is made.

Note: that if there was the ability to use the report there is plenty of good news in it though. The highlights from the 2021 Medicare Board of Trustees Report, if estimates could be accurately adjusted are:

Part B premium in 2022 = $158.50. Bad news is that this is over a 6.00% jump in costs. Better news is that through 2030 the inflation rate would be under 6.00% annually.

Part B Deductible in 2022 = $201.00 for the year which is a drop in costs.

National Base Premium = $32.64 a month which is another drop from 2021.

Part D Deductible = $480.00 for the year. This is the only dark spot in the report as this would be a 7.87% jump in cost from 2021.

IRMAA or the Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amount would see no adjustment to the income thresholds at all.

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