Editing Medicare (United States) (section)

==== Income-relating Medicare premiums ====
Both House Republicans and President Obama proposed increasing the additional premiums paid by the wealthiest people with Medicare, compounding several reforms in the ACA that would increase the number of wealthier individuals paying higher, income-related Part B and Part D premiums. Such proposals were projected to save $20 billion over the course of a decade,<ref name=jointcommitteereport><!--PREVIOUS: The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, "The Moment of Truth". December 2010. -->{{cite web |title=Living Within Our Means and Investing in the Future |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/jointcommitteereport.pdf |access-date=March 14, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122170017/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/jointcommitteereport.pdf |via=[[NARA|National Archives]] |work=[[Office of Management and Budget]] |archive-date=January 22, 2017 }}</ref> and would ultimately result in more than a quarter of Medicare enrollees paying between 35 and 90 percent of their Part B costs by 2035, rather than the typical 25 percent. If the brackets mandated for 2035 were implemented today,{{When|date=December 2013}} it would mean that anyone earning more than $47,000 (as an individual) or $94,000 (as a couple) would be affected. Under the Republican proposals, affected individuals would pay 40 percent of the total Part B and Part D premiums, which would be equivalent of $2,500.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Kaiser Family Foundation |title=Income-Relating Medicare Part B and Part D Premiums Under Current Law and Recent Proposals: What are the Implications for Beneficiaries? |date=February 2012 |url=http://www.kff.org/medicare/upload/8276.pdf}}</ref>

More limited income-relation of premiums only raises limited revenue. Currently, 5 percent of Medicare enrollees pay an income-related premium, and most pay 35 percent of their total costs (on average), compared to the 25 percent most people pay. Only a negligible number of enrollees fall into the higher income brackets required to bear a more substantial share of their costs—roughly half a percent of individuals and less than three percent of married couples currently pay more than 35 percent of their total Part B costs.<ref>Social Security Administration, Income of the Population, 55 and Older.</ref>

There is some concern that tying premiums to income would weaken Medicare politically over the long run, since people tend to be more supportive of universal social programs than of [[means test|means-tested]] ones.<ref>[[Theda Skocpol]] and Vanessa Williams. ''The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism''. Oxford University Press, 2012.</ref>