For 12 million on Medicare, premium set to jump 15% next year

The increase means that monthly premiums would top $100 for the first time, a stark indication of the rise in medical costs that is driving the debate in Congress about a broad overhaul of the health care system.

About 12 million people, or 27 percent of Medicare beneficiaries, will have to pay higher premiums or have the additional amounts paid on their behalf. The other 73 percent will be shielded from the increase because, under federal law, their Medicare premiums cannot go up more than the increase in their Social Security benefits, and Social Security officials announced last week that there would be no increase in benefits in 2010 because inflation had been extremely low.

Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, urged the Senate to approve a bill, already passed by the House, to block the scheduled increase in Medicare premiums.

“We are in tremendously difficult economic times, and seniors are being hit particularly hard,’’ Sebelius said. “The last thing seniors need right now is a substantial increase in their Medicare premiums, and many seniors will see such an increase if no action is taken.’’

Among those who face higher premiums next year are new Medicare beneficiaries, high-income people, and those whose Medicare premiums are paid by Medicaid. Premiums can be as high as $353.60 a month, or more than $4,200 a year, for Medicare beneficiaries who file tax returns with adjusted gross income greater than $214,000 for an individual or $428,000 for a couple.

The higher premiums will impose “an additional and significant burden’’ on states, which help pay Medicaid costs, along with the federal government.

The House bill was passed, 406-18, Sept. 24. Among those who voted against it was the Democratic majority leader, Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who said he saw no need to help multimillionaires at a time when the nation was struggling to rein in entitlement programs.

While lawmakers considered whether to freeze Medicare premiums, a handful of senators met behind closed doors yesterday to work out a compromise health care bill to cover the uninsured.

One participant, Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat from Maryland, the chairman of the Finance Committee, said senators were considering new ideas to finesse disagreements over whether the government should offer its own health insurance plan, in competition with private insurers.

Under one proposal, he said, the government would create a public plan, but states could opt out if they wanted to devise their own insurance programs.

The meeting, convened by the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, included Baucus and Senator Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut who presided over the health committee when it approved a sweeping health care bill in July.

Reid said he hoped to take a compromise bill to the Senate floor early next month. But that assumes rapid progress in negotiations among the factions.