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Show Medicare premiums rise as of July 1 Monthly premiums on the medical insurance part of Medicare will go up starting July 1. o The basic premium rate will go from $7.20 to $7.70 a month, according to John Wainwright, social security district manager in Grand Junction, CO. Medicare medical insurance helps pay doctor bills and other medical expenses and is funded by individual premiums and Federal general revenues.The protection protec-tion is offered to people 65 and over, to disabled people under 65 who have been entitled to social security disability benefits bene-fits for 24 consecutive months or more, and to many people under 65 with permanent kidney failure. The Medicare law requires" an annual review of the cost of the medical insurance program. pro-gram. Based on this review, an estimate is made of the cost of this coverage for the following year. Under that prevision the Medicare beneficiaries' bene-ficiaries' basic premium rate, would have been increased by over 70 percent to $12.30 a month because of rising costs af medical services covered by Medicare's medical insurance. The law also limits any increase in the basic premium rate to the percentage that social security benefit payments pay-ments increased in the previous pre-vious year. Soci;U security payments increased 6.4 percent per-cent in 1976, so the Medicare medical insurance basic premium pre-mium rate was limited to an increase of 6.4 percent starting start-ing July 1 -to $7.70 a month. The premium is aboat e third the cost of this p tion. The Federal &:. ment pays the reset from general revenue. Hospital insurance pr tion is extended r.:i: charge to people 65 and m who are eligible for jo security benefits, to people under 65 who tr-been tr-been entitled to socal re ity disability benea fer consecutive months or a and to many people c-k: with permanent kicbej i ure. I People 65 and over r, aren't eligible for soci set ity benefits can get Mecr hospital insurance b; prx monthly premium if tie; fc sign up for the medial is: ance. j The hospital irstru premium rate is based xp average monthly cost 0; IE protection. Starting J:?-this J:?-this rate will go froc'-$54 froc'-$54 a month. Over 24 million peojfeir one or both parts of Mecr People can get inlo'S about signing up for by calling, writing, or vs-any vs-any social security o5 Grand Junction sociil:-, sociil:-, office is located it 1". : Third Street. The pb: 242-61T6. ! |