I just received my Social Security Statement for 2017.

[egold2604]

Wow, I just received my SS statement for 2017. My increase of $4 a month was eaten up by the $5 increase in Medicare payments, so I will net out $1 less each month than last year. I was so looking forward to being able to buy a Big Mac each month with the extra. But, unfortunately, I will have to forgo that simple pleasure. Looks like cat food and dog food for me.

On a more positive note, my Medicare Supplemental premium went down $2 so I am ahead $1 for the month. I can afford to eat off Micky D's Dollar Menu once a month. Hope it will not cause run away hyperinflation.

[monmouth4]

1. I netted out $3 less again. Same thing the last time they gave us the increase. n/t

[shraby]

2. Mr. Shraby and I each got exactly what the raise in medicare was. Net

gain or loss= 0

[dumbcat]

13. Same with mine and the wife's

we netted out the same as last year.

[question everything]

20. This was the idea, to break even

Which means that since our monthly benefit are different, one of us is paying a lot more for Medicare.

[Brainstormy]

23. That's the part I don't understand

How, even though your benefits are different, and your insurance type is the same, the net result is the same zero.

[question everything]

24. That's because last year they really needed to increase Medicare premiums

However they have a rule of "do not harm" - or something like that - that if COLA is zero, which it was last year, they cannot raise the premiums - if the premiums are deducted from the benefits.

We told our sister in law to sign up for Social Security last year for that purpose. She was not going to sign, yet, for benefits and was paying for Medicare separately and those were going to be high. $130 I think.

This year they still need more money for Medicare, but they are constrained by the amount of COLA. Thus, any increase in gross benefits - depending on the amount - is being swallowed by Medicare premium.

[Liberal In Texas]

3. Broke even this time.

However, my supplemental is going up. Can't remember off hand how much, but it was significant.

[Faux pas]

4. Yeah

we 'useless eaters' don't deserve nutin'. Doesn't matter that we paid taxes and supported this damned country for at least 40 years while the rich bastids and corps paid nothing.

[mountain grammy]

5. Supplemental up $20/month, net loss of $2 on SS.

[MineralMan]

6. My monthly benefit will be the same as it was last year.

I'd complain, but I think I'll wait and fight Donald Trump's and Congress' attempt to make drastic cuts instead.

[braddy]

7. Mine increased $7.00, with $7.00 more taken out, so it equals zero.

[Dustlawyer]

8. It appears that supplemental insurance companies are the ones who benefit every

time the is a COLA, the people not so much!

[safeinOhio]

9. I'll have to give up

Canned cat food for bags of the dry kind

[onethatcares]

11. you'll be surprised

at how long a bag lasts.

[Tanuki]

10. Sadly, it appears that the price of gas is going up again,

and your extra dollar (and then some) will go to the oil companies.

[mnhtnbb]

12. No change for me. Increase absorbed by Medicare premium.

I'm going to get my $$ worth, though, from Medicare (I hope before they get rid of it) since I am bone on bone
in one knee and going to need a knee replacement. Hope to get by until next summer, since the rehab is so prolonged. We have trips planned April/May.

[Wounded Bear]

14. Not on medicare yet...

but never fear, my landlord already raised my rent by $23.

[Jacob Boehme]

15. Just be glad we're not being fed Soylent Green burgers yet.

But if the GOP has its way, they may be in everyone's future. Sigh......

[Buckeye_Democrat]

17. Tastes like mild pork, supposedly.

What does human meat taste like?
https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-lay-scientist/2010/sep/05/human-meat-taste-cannibal

[Hekate]

29. No doubt why it's always been referred to as "long pig" in the South Pacific

[Buckeye_Democrat]

30. I'd never heard that! Yeah, it seems to support it.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/long-pig

long pig
noun
1.
(among the Maori and Polynesian peoples) human flesh as food for cannibals

[Hoyt]

16. The irony is that we would have gotten 2.3 times as much under Chained CPI, at least for this year.

We would have gotten a .7% increase under C-CPI vs. .3%. I know, the consensus is that C-CPI would be worse long-term.

I doubt we are going to see any improvement over next 4 years, and likely longer. Of course, we did get some "savings" from Obama helping to close the drug "donut hole." For a lot of us, that is worth a good bit.

[Towlie]

18. My benefits "increased" to exactly what I was getting before.

"Your Social Security benefits will increase by 0.3% in 2017 because of a rise in the cost of living. You can use this letter as proof..."

The notice says nothing about an increase in the Medicare deduction but apparently that's the reason the total amount didn't change.

I don't suppose that means my doctor will get a free Big Mac each month, but it might get him a pickle slice.

[PennyK]

19. I went for a pricier part D this time

This year was a fiasco, what with me being diagnosed for breast cancer. I had the cheapest drug plan, and I ended up going through and back out of the donut hole! I'll be paying more per month for the coverage, but the difference in what I pay for the meds will more than balance it out, and hopefully, by the middle of the year, I'll just be down to one COPD drug.
I am so grateful for Medicare. My treatments this year would have put a very serious dent in our life savings (I had just turned 65 when I was diagnosed).

[Skittles]

25. wishing you the best, PennyK

someone is always here on DU, you can always talk to us

[heaven05]

21. I got mine also. No increase, decrease(which is good, I guess)

same-o, same-o for the last 6 years. I guess that's good, but prices have not remained static in those years, so I'm losing ground as millions of us are. And mr. "shakethingsup" along with the ryans and mconnells aren't going to help us any either.

[still_one]

22. That will be pretty much the same for everyone. I would be more concerned at what the repukes will

be trying to do to it in the next four years, then essentially the break even most people experienced this time

[Skittles]

26. you are getting much more than retirees in the future will

that's the saddest part

[GP6971]

27. That's if

they'll get anything at all.

[pbmus]

28. Eating the dollar menu will cause runaway hyper diarrhea ..nt