[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16364]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT--A WINNER FOR SENIORS

  (Mr. COURTNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, the government announced yesterday good 
news for seniors: their Medicare part B premiums for 2014 will go up 
zero dollars and zero cents. It will stay at $104 per month. This is 
now the third year in a row that CMS Medicare part B premiums have 
defied the trustees' predictions and have come in lower than projected. 
It also defies the relentless campaign of misinformation that seniors 
have been subjected to that their Medicare part B premiums are going to 
go up.
  Just on Friday, I was at a senior fair where a woman showed me a 
chain email that read that Medicare part B premiums for 2014 were going 
up to $247 a month--just a viral infection that has been out there and 
that I have been confronted with at senior centers over and over again. 
The facts are that they are going up zero. Medicare Advantage premiums 
have stabilized. Medicare part B premiums have stabilized. Prescription 
drug costs have gone down because of closing the doughnut hole.
  In every respect, the Affordable Care Act since it passed in 2010 has 
been a winner for seniors, and it has helped strengthen the solvency of 
the program. Again, Medicare part B premiums are going up zero for 
2014.

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