Medicare Premiums Won’t Rise Next Year

Because health care costs are not rising as quickly as expected, Medicare premiums will not have to go up next year to save the money required in the balanced-budget deal, officials said. This summer, congressional accountants predicted that because of rising health care costs, the monthly Medicare premiums senior citizens pay for doctor’s office visits and other outpatient treatment would need to go up by about $20 over the next five years--starting with a $1.90 increase for 1998--to balance the federal budget. But at the same time, Medicare officials were working on a program review that has shown senior citizens’ health care costs are not growing as much as expected.