[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 222 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 222

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to stabilize the amount 
                    of the medicare part B premium.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 31, 2005

Ms. Stabenow (for herself, Mr. Kennedy, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. 
  Rockefeller, Mr. Dayton, and Mr. Corzine) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to stabilize the amount 
                    of the medicare part B premium.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Keep the Promise of Medicare Act of 
2005''.

SEC. 2. STABILIZATION OF MEDICARE PART B PREMIUM.

    (a) Findings.--The Senate finds the following:
            (1) The 2005 Medicare part B premium is 17.5 percent higher 
        than the 2004 Medicare part B premium.
            (2) Medicare part B premiums have increased nearly 45 
        percent over the last 4 years.
            (3) The increase in the 2005 Medicare part B premium is the 
        largest dollar increase in Medicare's history and the largest 
        percentage increase in more than a decade.
            (4) The increase in the 2005 Medicare part B premium 
        increases annual costs for each Medicare beneficiary by almost 
        $140.
            (5) The 2005 Social Security COLA increased only 2.7 
        percent.
            (6) An average retiree with a Social Security benefit of 
        $914 will spend 47 percent of his or her 2005 Social Security 
        COLA on the increase in the 2005 Medicare part B premium.
            (7) 2,100,000 Medicare beneficiaries nationwide have had 
        their entire 2005 Social Security COLA consumed by the increase 
        in the 2005 Medicare part B premium.
            (8) Almost 13,000,000 Medicare beneficiaries will have over 
        50 percent of their 2005 Social Security COLA consumed by the 
        increase in the 2005 Medicare part B premium.
            (9) The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and 
        Modernization Act of 2003 directly contributed to the increase 
        in the 2005 Medicare part B premium by including provisions to 
        privatize the Medicare program, making the program less 
        efficient.
            (10) The Medicare expenses that beneficiaries must pay will 
        increase from 37 percent of a beneficiary's Social Security 
        check in 2006 to nearly 50 percent in 2021.
    (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that 
Congress should enact legislation to protect Medicare beneficiaries 
from dramatic increases in the Medicare part B premium.
    (c) Stabilization.--Section 1839(a)(3) of the Social Security Act 
(42 U.S.C. 1395r(a)(3)) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new sentence: ``Notwithstanding the preceding sentences, the monthly 
premium rate determined under this paragraph for each month in 2005 may 
not exceed an amount equal to the monthly premium rate determined under 
this paragraph for each month in 2004 adjusted by the percentage change 
in the average Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical 
Workers (CPI-W) for the third quarter of 2003 to the third quarter of 
2004.''.
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