WASHINGTON (AP) — Monthly premiums for popular private insurance plans through Medicare are only inching up next year, the Obama administration said Wednesday, trumpeting good news for skeptical older voters on a closely watched election-year issue.

Republican Mitt Romney has warned that cuts in President Barack Obama’s health care law would hobble programs such as Medicare Advantage, the private insurance option that’s a thriving part of Medicare. But deputy Medicare administrator Jonathan Blum said such dire predictions have not proved to be true.