What Medicare costs in 2026, part by part

Part A: most people pay no premium

Part A is hospital insurance: inpatient hospital care, skilled nursing facility care, hospice and some home health care. You usually pay no monthly premium for it if you or a spouse paid Medicare taxes while working for long enough, generally ten years. That's about ninety-nine percent of people with Medicare, by CMS's count. If you get Medicare before 65, you pay no Part A premium either.

You pay the Part A deductible each time a new benefit period starts, and there's no limit to the number of benefit periods in a year, so you can pay it more than once. A benefit period starts the day you are admitted as an inpatient and ends when you have had no inpatient hospital care, or skilled care in a nursing facility, for sixty days in a row.

If you don't qualify for Part A without a premium, you might be able to buy it, as long as you also sign up for Part B. If you don't buy it when you're first eligible, you might pay a penalty. Here's how late enrollment penalties work.

Part B: the premium, the deductible and your share

Part B covers services from doctors and other health care providers, outpatient care, home health care, durable medical equipment and some preventive services. Most people pay a monthly premium for it.

You pay the Part B premium every month, even in a month when you use no Part B services, and the amount can change each year. It is usually taken out of your Social Security benefit; if you don't get benefits, or the benefit is too low, Medicare sends you a bill.

The twenty percent applies when your doctor accepts the amount Medicare approves as full payment, which is called accepting assignment. Original Medicare has no yearly limit on what you pay out of pocket unless you add supplemental coverage, such as a Medigap policy, or join a Medicare Advantage Plan.

When income raises the premium

If the modified adjusted gross income on your tax return from two years ago is above a set amount, you pay an income-related monthly adjustment amount, called IRMAA, in addition to the standard Part B premium, and an extra amount with a Part D plan. These amounts affect roughly eight percent of people with Part B.

Social Security tells you if you have to pay it. If a life-changing event such as marriage, divorce, the death of a spouse, a loss of income or an employer settlement payment reduced your household income, you can ask Social Security to lower the amount.

The same brackets add an amount to a Part D plan's premium: from $14.50 to $91.00 a month in 2026, added to the plan's own premium (from the CMS 2026 fact sheet).

What a Medigap, Advantage or drug plan adds

A plan you add to Original Medicare, or join instead of it, brings its own premium and costs. You keep paying the Part B premium either way.

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Help paying Medicare costs

• Medicare Savings Programs. If you have limited income and resources, your state may help pay your Medicare premiums, deductibles and coinsurance through a Medicare Savings Program.
• Extra Help. A Medicare program that lowers Part D premiums, deductibles, coinsurance and other drug costs. You get it automatically if you have full Medicaid, help from a Medicare Savings Program or Supplemental Security Income; otherwise you can apply. While you get Extra Help, you don't pay a Part D late enrollment penalty.
• Your State Health Insurance Assistance Program. Your local State Health Insurance Assistance Program can help you apply. You can apply for Extra Help and a Medicare Savings Program at the same time.

In 2026 the Extra Help income limit is $23,940 for one person and $32,460 for a married couple, and the resource limits are $18,090 and $36,100 (Medicare.gov's Extra Help page). Those limits may go up each year, so check them when you apply.

Questions people ask

Got another Medicare question, about enrollment periods or penalties? Try the Answers page.