2 Pieces of Good News for Retirees on Social Security and Medicare
Inflation has become a particularly pressing problem as it relates to retirees. The standard Medicare Part B premium jumped 14.5% in 2022. The prices of food, gasoline, and certain utilities have climbed at a double-digit pace as well. It's clear the 5.9% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) applied to Social Security benefits in 2022 woefully underestimated the pace of inflation, putting many beneficiaries in a difficult position.
And as bad as all that sounds, the problem is actually much more serious.
Annual COLAs are intended to keep Social Security payments aligned with inflation, but an analysis from The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) shows that benefits have lost 40% of their buying power since January 2000. The recent bout of rampant inflation caused the problem to accelerate, as 10 of those percentage points of lost buying power occurred between March 2021 and March 2022.
Source Fool.com
