The Federal Reserve Board is holding the benchmark interest rates it controls near zero because, supposedly, the overall inflation rate is near zero. So low, supposedly, that we’re all at risk of fainting from how horribly steady prices are.
Insurance companies have been posting survey reports showing how amazingly steady nursing home prices and other long-term care (LTC) facilities’ and service providers’ prices have been.
Meanwhile, when I look at my checking account at the end of the month, there’s no evidence whatsoever that the real prices I really pay are holding steady.
How is it possible that costs can be going up so much when “prices are holding steady”?
When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2016 Medicare Advantage plan menus this week, officials boasted about how steady the enrollees’ monthly premiums will be. About 95 percent of enrollees will have access to plan options that charge no monthly premiums, and the number of zero-premium options will increase about 2 percent, to 9.751.
About 28 percent of the plans will be zero-premium plans.
See also: Medicare Advantage plan count rises