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Study: Restructuring Medicare’s Benefit Structure Would Increase Costs For Seniors | Several deficit reduction plans have proposed restructuring Medicare’s benefit design by combining the Medicare Part A and Part B deductibles (hospitals and doctors) that seniors currently pay separately and establishing a co-insurance requirement for all services up to an annual limit. A new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation modeled the effects of such proposals — a $550 deductible for Parts A and B, a 20 percent coinsurance on all services up to a $5,500 annual limit — “nearly three-fourths (71 percent) of the 41 million beneficiaries in the fee-for-service Medicare program would have higher out-of-pocket spending,” “5 percent would have lower out-of-pocket spending, and 24 percent would have a nominal or no change in spending.”