Seniors Paid Billions in Extra Premiums Due to Alleged Medicare Overpayments

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The average American senior’s Medicare premiums last year were about 10% higher, or more than $200 annually, because of alleged overpayments to private Medicare Advantage plans, congressional investigators found.

Medicare Part B premiums that most seniors pay were partly pushed up by controversial health-insurer practices such as adding diagnoses to trigger higher payments, according to the Joint Economic Committee, a bipartisan group of lawmakers that advises Congress on financial matters.

Overpayments to Medicare Advantage insurers increased Part B premiums by $13.4 billion in 2025, the committee said, a cost mostly borne by seniors. Both those enrolled in Medical Advantage plans and those in standard Medicare faced those additional costs.

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