Medicare Part B premiums and the annual deductible will be reduced in 2023 for the first time in 11 years, the Biden administration has announced.

A 3% reduction in the premiums will reduce the monthly payments by $5.20, from $170.10 to $164.90. The annual deductible will go down $7 — from $233 to $226 — in 2023.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that lower spending than anticipated for the anti-Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm played a role in the premium cut, which will be the first since 2012.

This year’s premium was a 14.5% increase over the cost to Medicare Part B participants in 2021. That increase was mandated after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Aduhelm and its cost was set at $56,000 per year. The drug’s manufacturer, Biogen, subsequently reduced the price by nearly half, to $28,200.

President Biden noted during a White House press conference that retirees also would benefit from lower prescription drug costs resulting from the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act.

UFT Retired Teachers Chapter Leader Tom Murphy gave the president credit for the relief. “These amazing benefit reductions,” he said, “should be seen in the context of the Biden administration’s commitment to enhancing Medicare as an earned benefit, rather than the previous administration’s cruel attempts to diminish senior health care as a spendthrift entitlement.”