Medicare's looming premium hike

By the numbers: Standard Medicare Part B premiums will be $170.10 per month next year, up from $148.50 per month this year.

• That equals an extra $259.20 in extra costs over the course of the year, just in premiums.
• The Part B deductible also is increasing 15%, from $203 to $233.

Between the lines: Medicare is still determining whether it will pay for Aduhelm yet, but federal actuaries have to plan for a "high-cost scenario of Aduhelm coverage," regulators said.

• The FDA approved Aduhelm in June, and Biogen priced Aduhelm at $56,000 per year on average.
• That price tag, along with all of the hospital and doctor costs associated with administering the drug and ancillary tests, could lead to "very significant" costs for the taxpayer-funded program, according to the notice.

The bottom line: The pandemic has made it difficult to predict future Medicare spending, such as trying to determine whether patients will get more non-COVID care that had been put off.

• But Aduhelm — a treatment that has not conclusively proved that it improves brain function of Alzheimer's patients — is now a high-profile example of pharma pricing power affecting Medicare patients' pocketbooks and represents a redistribution of taxpayer money into Biogen's coffers.