Social Security checks to increase

ASSOCIATED PRESS

More than 47 million Americans will get a 2.7 percent increase in their Social Security checks starting in January, meaning an additional $25 per month for the typical retiree. But almost half of that gain will be gobbled up by a record increase in Medicare premiums.

The cost of living adjustment, or COLA, announced yesterday by the Social Security Administration will be the largest percentage gain since a 3.5 percent increase in 2001. The increase last January was 2.1 percent.

The inflation adjustment is based on the amount prices — as measured by the Consumer Price Index — have risen in the July-September quarter compared with the same period a year ago. Rising energy costs have driven inflation higher this year.

The average Social Security retiree will see his benefit check increase from $930 this year to $955 next year.

However, the average retiree will also realize just over half of that increase because the government announced in September that monthly Medicare premiums for doctor visits will rise by $11.60 a month next year, a record in dollar terms.

Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who is trying to make President Bush’s handling of Social Security and health care major issues in the campaign, told a rally in Pennsylvania the 2.7 percent benefit increase represented “more bad news” because of the large increase in the Medicare premium.

Mr. Kerry said the situation will be even worse for 2 million retirees receiving the lowest benefit payments, whose entire cost of living adjustment will be wiped out by the Medicare increase.

Under law, the monthly increase in Medicare premiums cannot be higher than a person’s cost of living adjustment. Retirees whose cost of living increase will be less than $11.60 next year will not be forced to pay the entire Medicare increase.

Several Democrats are pushing legislation that would go further and cap the Medicare premium increase to no more than 25 percent of a retiree’s cost of living increase.

“American seniors rely on their COLA to help them with the rising cost of prescription drugs, food, clothing and shelter,” said one of the sponsors, Rep. Robert T. Matsui, California Democrat.

Mr. Kerry repeated a charge he made Sunday that Mr. Bush is planning a surprise second-term effort to privatize Social Security.

“I will not privatize Social Security, I will not cut benefits. I will not raise the retirement age,” Mr. Kerry said.

Mr. Bush rapped Mr. Kerry for trying “to scare our seniors.”

“In 2000, they tried the same thing; if George W. gets elected, seniors won’t get their checks. The seniors got their checks,” Mr. Bush said Monday in an Associated Press interview. “The seniors will continue to get their checks. But it is wrong to try to scare people going into the polls.”

Social Security will face a funding shortfall in coming years as more baby boomers retire and the government’s biggest benefit program begins paying out more than it takes in in payroll taxes.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has called for baby boomers’ benefits to be trimmed, possibly by reducing the annual COLA increase or raising the retirement age, because he says the government has promised more in retirement benefits than it can afford.

Mr. Bush campaigned in 2000 on a program to partially privatize Social Security by giving younger workers the option of diverting some of their payroll taxes into private investment accounts. But the proposal has languished in large part because of transition costs that some estimate would top $1 trillion.

The 2.7 percent benefit increase will mean the average retired couple will see their Social Security benefits rise from $1,532 a month currently to $1,574 next year, a gain of $42 per month.