Budget Law To Block Expected Medicare Part B Premium Hikes.

USA Today (11/13, Powell) reports that the bipartisan budget bill signed last week changes Social Security and Medicare laws. The changes include stopping the expected Medicare Part B premium hikes. Thirty percent of “Medicare beneficiaries were expecting a 52% increase in their Medicare Part B medical insurance premiums and deductible in 2016,” but the budget law will have those beneficiaries “pay about $119 per month, instead of $159.30, for Part B.” Medicare part B beneficiaries will “also have to pay an extra $3 per month to help pay down a loan the government gave to Medicare to offset lost revenue.”