But Part D hasn’t controlled costs. Instead, premiums have risen by 57 percent since 2006, and the program is expected to see nearly 10 percent growth in annual costs over the next decade.
57%? Is that on his rich grandman or something?
A dollar increase has been average for the past two years. The average monthly premium in 2010 was $29, which was $1 more than beneficiaries paid in 2009. However, from 2008 to 2009, monthly premiums jumped 12%.
UPWARDTREND IN PDPPREMIUMS,2006-2009
Between 2006 and 2008, average monthly PDP
premiums increased by just under $4 (weighted by
each year’s enrollment) (Exhibit 1). If PDP enrollees
do not switch plans between 2008 and 2009, the
average monthly premium for PDPs will increase by
$7.40 per month, from $29.89 in 2008 to $37.29 in
2009.2 This represents a 25 percent increase.$0
$5
$10
2006 2007 2008 2009
SOURCE: Hoadley et al analysis of CMS PDP landscape files, 2006-2009, for the Kaiser Family
Foundation.
$37.29 expected by 2009, yet in 2011, premiums are averaging $30 in 2011……
Maybe one of my readers has a more direct source.
ithinkthereforeierr.wordpress.com 
Why yes, the Medicare Trustees Report gives the average premium for each year since 2006.
2006 – -$23
2007 — $22
2008 — $24
2009 — $28
2010 — $30
2011 — $31
The estimated average in 2006 was $35 – $37 and Democrat amendments then and in subsequent years before the program started tried to mandate premiums at that level because they did not believe that private market competition could be more effective than govt. price controls. Clearly, the private sector has saved seniors hundreds or thousands of dollars in premium costs since 2006.
I don’t know where Klein’s math comes from — the percentage increase from 06 to 11 is 34% and even if you take 07 as the starting point the percentage increase is only 40%.
To give him the benefit of the doubt, I thought he might be calculating based on the base premium determined from the bids that determines the govt. payment amount and those premiums are higher. However, see the base premium amounts for the same years:
2006 — $32.20
2007 — $27.35
2008 — $27.93
2009 — $30.36
2010 — $31.94
2011 — $32.34
I’m not even getting out my calculator to figure out that the difference between $32.20 and $32.34 is NOT 57%.
Ezra Klein is a partisan writer, clearly not a journalist, and should be fact checked by his own newspaper’s Fact Checker for its pinocchio value……
Thank you to my source for accurate information….we’ll see what the WAPO fact checker gives us tomorrow.