How Not To Tear Your Family Apart

Are Medicare/Medicaid Prices Going Up?

Don’t wait until right before you are eligible for Medicare and Medicaid to incorporate the costs into your retirement budgeting. Prices for medical services generally are set in advance creating a delay between wage and cost increases caused by inflation and prices for medical services. Medicare and Medicaid are setting prices based on what they predict inflationary and cost pressures are going to be,” said Corey Rhyan, senior analyst of health economics and policy for Altarum during an August 24, 2022 presentation at The Health Wonk Shop: Health Care Inflation in the U.S. ”They predicted for 2021 and 2022 that those cost pressures would not be as extreme as they ended up being. On the private side, those prices are set on the basis of negotiations. That’s why the sharp cost increases in 2021 and 2022 have not yet been reflected in health care prices.” Nursing home and community care organization payments have fallen and average wages are growing, so that’s something to look out for,” noted vice president and director of the Program on the ACA at KFF.