Social Security Matters: COLA, Medicare premiums and the hold harmless provision

Dear Rusty: My wife and I got the annual notification of our Social Security earnings starting Jan. 1.

UNBELIEVABLE! I will get a gross COLA increase of $31 a month, but I will only get $6. The remaining $25 will go into the increase in Medicare. The last four years I got nothing in each of the years. It all went into Medicare. My wife in the last 4 years got no increase at all. It all went into Medicare. And guess what? Starting in January, all her COLA increase of $14 will go into Medicare. That makes 5 years in a row that she will get no raise at all! How can that be?

Signed: Frustrated

Dea...