What Medicare Costs
What Medicare actually costs you in a year — the Part B premium, the IRMAA surcharge that surprises higher-income retirees two years after the fact, Part D, deductibles, and the late-enrollment penalties that never go away. Every figure comes from the CMS document that set it, with the year it took effect printed beside it.
IRMAA Calculator — Medicare Income Surcharge
IRMAA is the income-related surcharge added to your Medicare Part B and Part D premiums when the tax return you filed two years ago showed income above a threshold. Enter that income and your filing status to estimate your tier, the monthly and yearly surcharge, and exactly how many dollars sit between you and the next cliff.
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Roth Conversion and IRMAA — Your 2026 Conversion Sets Your 2028 Premium
A Roth conversion counts as income, and Medicare sets your premium from the return you filed two years earlier. So a conversion made this autumn surfaces as a surcharge two Januarys later. Enter your income and the amount you are weighing to see which thresholds it crosses and what each step costs.
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Medicare Part B Premium and Deductible
The standard Medicare Part B premium and annual deductible for 2026, taken straight from the CMS notice that set them, with every year back to 2016 so you can see how fast this line item has actually risen. Higher earners pay more through IRMAA; this page shows the base figure everyone starts from.
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Medicare Late Enrollment Penalty Calculator
Sign up for Medicare Part B or Part D late and the surcharge is permanent. Enter how many months you went without each kind of coverage to estimate what the penalty adds every month, every year, and over a horizon you choose. Part B counts full twelve-month periods only, so partial years cost nothing.
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Medicare Enrollment Windows — Your Personal Dates
Your seven-month Medicare sign-up window is worked out from your birthday, and being born on the first of a month shifts the whole thing a month earlier. Enter your date of birth to estimate your own dates, see when coverage would start, and download them to your calendar. No email address required.
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Form SSA-44 — Reducing IRMAA After a Life-Changing Event
Form SSA-44 is how you ask Social Security to base your Medicare surcharge on this year's income instead of the two-year-old tax return that triggered it. Here are the eight life-changing events that qualify, the evidence Social Security accepts for each one, and how the form is filed. Filing it is free.
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Total Medicare Cost Estimator
Nobody publishes one number for what a year of Medicare costs a household, because the pieces live in separate documents. This estimator adds them: the Part B premium, any IRMAA surcharge, deductibles, and the drug or supplement premium you supply. Original Medicare and Advantage are shown as two shapes of cost, without a verdict.
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Medigap vs Medicare Advantage — How the Costs Are Structured
Medigap and Medicare Advantage do not cost more or less than each other — they put the cost in different places. One front-loads predictable premiums, the other front-loads less and exposes you to out-of-pocket charges up to a yearly maximum. Here is the structure of each, in figures CMS publishes, with no plan named.
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Medicare Part D Costs and the Yearly Out-of-Pocket Cap
What Medicare drug coverage can cost you in a year, now that there is a hard ceiling on it. The cap, the most a plan may charge as a deductible, and the national figure that quietly sets the late-enrollment penalty, each taken from the CMS notice that published it. No plan is named or priced.
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