You may have seen in the news there is new legislation that may be passing soon in Washington DC called "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022". The House has already passed the bill (when it was called the Build Back Better Act) and it is close to being passed in the Senate. If it gets passed in the Senate, the President will sign it into law. You can find the full text of the bill here, and below is a brief summary (link to Source). The bill would raise revenue from: - Imposing a 15% corporate minimum tax rate for companies with higher than $1 billion annual revenue – $313 billion - Prescription drug price reform to lower prices, including Medicare negotiation of drug prices – $288 billion - Increased tax enforcement – $124 billion - Imposing a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks - $73 billion It would spend this revenue on: - Continuing for three more years the expansion of Affordable Care Act subsidies originally expanded under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 – $64 billion - Addressing domestic energy security and climate change – $369 billion - Funding for drought relief - $5 billion - Deficit reduction – $306 billion Impacts to Medicare Beneficiaries
There are two main impacts to Medicare Beneficiaries in the bill.
My concerns with the Bill are below.
I really hope my pessimism is incorrect. If the bill does get passed, I hope these changes work and generate the additional $600 Billion in Tax revenue (plus the other $200 Billion projected). Otherwise, the additional spending in this bill will continue to drive increased Inflation for many years to come.
32 Comments
Barbara A Leto
8/7/2022 02:26:12 pm
thanks for the info. RX is always a concern. mine are out of control. Unfortunately by the time this gets passed I will be 85 years old. They have been trying for years...no reason we have to pay so much for prescriptions...or hearing aids. It should be easier for seniors but when you are in the middle class it is not. Thanks for keeping us updated.
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Justin Lubenow
8/8/2022 05:05:17 am
Thanks for your comment, and I hope you are able to take advantage of these changes when they get implemented.
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Paul Levine
8/8/2022 04:39:32 pm
I share your pessimism.
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Deborah Cohen
8/8/2022 02:54:32 pm
Thanks for this update. As a wearer of hearing aids that provision sounds very good to me as they are indeed very expensive.
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Justin Lubenow
8/9/2022 04:32:38 am
Hi Deborah - sorry to say, the Hearing benefit was removed from the final version that was passed.
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Alyce goff
8/23/2022 08:56:17 am
Doesnt that just figure
Don Scafuri
8/8/2022 04:44:58 pm
I think you should also have mentioned this (as reported in Forbes):
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Justin Lubenow
8/9/2022 04:36:33 am
Hi Don,
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Don Scafuri
8/10/2022 11:06:15 am
The confusion re. the $35 cap on insulin apparently stems from the distinction between those on Medicare & those covered by private insurers. The latest reporting (Aug. 9) summarizes that provision in the Senate bill as follows:
Justin Lubenow
8/10/2022 05:58:01 pm
Thanks for the additional info.
Ellen Hohmann
8/8/2022 07:40:27 pm
I also share your pessimism on the ability to generate revenue and mostly likely drives up
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Justin Lubenow
8/9/2022 04:33:28 am
Hi Ellen, thanks for reviewing; we shall see.
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ESTHER Ryniewicz
8/9/2022 08:19:48 am
Justin
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Justin Lubenow
8/10/2022 01:21:18 am
Hi Esther,
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Jan Friedman
8/9/2022 06:31:55 pm
Justin. There is so much good in this bill that cannot be ignored!! I know you were just focusing on Medicare but
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Justin Lubenow
8/10/2022 01:22:54 am
Hi Jan,
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8/9/2022 09:24:45 pm
The chances of collecting the 15% corporate tax are pretty good, because it is written as a global minimum. If a corp says some of its income is in a place with 5% tax, that's fine, but the US will collect the other 10%. This is the end of a long process with many other high income countries specifically to deal with tax havens.
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Justin Lubenow
8/10/2022 01:26:13 am
Thanks John for providing some additional insight re the Corporate minimum tax.
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Gail Bott
8/10/2022 08:14:41 am
Thanks for the update, Justin. I will be new to Medicare this year and hope more good changes will come, like the hearing/hearing aid portion being passed in another bill. I think something is better than nothing at this point and everything is always worth a try. Unfortunately, republicans just can't get out of their way and work with the Democrats to make a difference and pass bills that would help the American people, so we have to take everything in baby steps. I'm optimistic that this bill will help and that Democrats will build on this with more bills to come.
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Justin Lubenow
8/10/2022 05:56:02 pm
Hi Gail - thank you for your feedback.
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Linda Marshall
8/10/2022 08:36:15 pm
Thanks Justin, sadly I agree with you, mostly because I think that no matter what side of the fence you sit on, there is always hidden agendas to whatever gets passed. I sure hope we are wrong and this bill does do what they say. Can always hope.
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Justin Lubenow
8/12/2022 06:07:27 am
We can hope! :-)
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Georgianna Dickson
8/11/2022 03:43:24 pm
Thank you, Justin, for keeping information flowing, whether all of us understand or not. Script prices for seniors on fixed incomes are so hard to fathom. My husband's shot in the arm yesterday (which took all of two seconds) ultimately cost $53K++! Ridiculous! WHO can DO that!? Thank God for some special programs which assist with co-pays (at least for the time being). I know we're not the only ones, but in these scenarios, company is not desired. Good luck to all others out there facing this "stuff".
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Justin Lubenow
8/12/2022 06:08:41 am
Wow, that is ridiculous. Drug pricing is out of control in this country!
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Patricia Fenn
8/11/2022 08:51:43 pm
Thanks for info. Boy 2025 that's in reality 2 more years of incredible drug costs if we are still using current method of calculation. Right now my drug bills are escalating monthly.
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Justin Lubenow
8/12/2022 06:10:46 am
You're welcome Pat. These things do take time to implement, but 2025 does seem rather far away.
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melinda price
8/12/2022 12:29:35 am
I don't see anything good coming from this unless we have campaign finance reforms. As long as senate and house candidates continue receiving large donations from big corporations(pharma and insurance) we can't expect any taxing changes to pass. Seniors get shafted every time.
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Justin Lubenow
8/12/2022 06:11:33 am
Hi Melinda - I would be supportive of campaign finance reform as well!
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Robert Sacks
8/12/2022 06:34:15 pm
I share your pessimism.concerning the corporate tax. I appreciate you sending this type of information to your clients.
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Justin Lubenow
8/12/2022 11:38:32 pm
Thanks for reading and providing your feedback Robert.
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Don Scafuri
8/13/2022 01:30:33 am
This article in the 8-10-22 NY Times provided some good info -- & some relief -- for those of us on Medicare:
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