Your Medicare Premium Is Rising Twice as Fast as Your Social Security Check — Here's What to Do About It

What if the Medicare premium increases heading your way aren't just a number, they're a signal that the entire system is heading somewhere most retirees aren't prepared for?

Phil Moeller has co-written a New York Times bestseller on Social Security, authored the definitive consumer guide to Medicare, and spent decades covering personal finance for US News, PBS NewsHour, and Money Magazine. He's also a Medicare enrollee with strong opinions about what's working, what isn't, and what you should do before your next open enrollment window.

In this episode, Professor Kotlikoff sits down with his longtime friend and co-author for a conversation that starts with the nuts and bolts of Medicare: Medigap, Part D strategy, Medicare Advantage trade-offs, the birthday rule — and ends somewhere bigger: a frank discussion of whether America's healthcare and retirement trajectory is fixable at all.

What You'll Learn:

• [00:03:45] Why Phil chose traditional Medicare with Plan G Medigap — and why he still thinks it's right for people of means
• [00:05:42] The $1 million hospital bill story — how a $3,500 Medigap premium produced zero out-of-pocket cost
• [00:06:38] The $5-a-month Part D strategy — and when to stop caring about the deductible
• [00:09:48] Why the Part B premium is rising at roughly twice the Social Security cost-of-living rate
• [00:15:23] When Medicare Advantage makes sense — and where it breaks down when you need it most
• [00:18:23] The birthday rule most people have never heard of
• [00:19:39] What the One Big Beautiful Bill means for Medicaid in your state
• [00:27:45] The hidden $600-$700 billion annual subsidy inside Parts B and D — and who's really paying
• [00:35:32] How seniors went from the poorest to the wealthiest generation — and what that data looks like
• [00:44:51] What Phil Moeller would do as healthcare czar
• [00:59:10] Why 35 cents of every healthcare dollar goes to administration
• [01:00:42] The purple billionaire argument — why Larry thinks an independent candidate is the only path to real reform

Featured Guest:

Philip Moeller is a veteran personal finance journalist and author of Get What's Yours for Medicare and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Get What's Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security. He publishes the Substack Aging in America.

Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and one of the country's foremost experts on Social Security, Medicare, and generational fiscal policy.

Referenced Links:

• Get What's Yours (Revised): amazon.com
• Get What's Yours for Medicare (Revised): amazon.com
• Aging in America Substack: philmoeller.substack.com
• We've Got You Covered by Einav & Finkelstein: amazon.com
• Gerontocracy in America by Samuel Moyn: amazon.com
• Cost Plus Drugs: costplusdrugs.com
• Medicare Extra Help: medicare.gov
• Economics Matters Substack: larrykotlikoff.substack.com

Economics Matters: The Podcast is hosted by Larry Kotlikoff, Professor of Economics at Boston University.

Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed on Economics Matters are those of the authors and guests. These are not the opinions of Boston University or Economic Security Planning, Inc.