Medicare May Raise U.S. Seniors' Premiums 12% in 2006 [... no action to control health care costs ...]

Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide: "Medicare May Raise U.S. Seniors' Premiums 12% in 2006 (Update1)

March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Medicare may raise U.S. seniors' health-insurance premiums by 12 percent next year because of higher payments to doctors, a government report showed.

The increase would push premiums for doctor visits deducted from Social Security checks up 49 percent over three years to $87.70 a month, the health-insurance program's trustees said in an annual report yesterday. Medicare, which covers more than 41 million elderly and disabled Americans, annually adjusts patient premiums and deductibles for hospital care.

``This is actually worse than I thought,'' said Joseph Antos, a health-care policy analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington policy research group, in an interview yesterday."