2026 Medicare Costs, All on One Page

The 2026 numbers at a glance

Here's the whole year in one table. The rest of the page walks through each line.

Source: CMS, 2026 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles fact sheet, published November 14, 2025; CMS Final CY2026 Part D Redesign Program Instructions.

What does the hospital side (Part A) cost?

Most people pay no monthly premium for Part A. If you or your spouse paid Medicare taxes for 40 quarters, roughly ten years of work, the premium is $0. CMS says that covers about 99% of people on Medicare. Source: CMS, 2026 Medicare Parts A & B fact sheet.

The cost that matters is the deductible: $1,736 per benefit period, which covers your first 60 days as a hospital inpatient. A benefit period is not a calendar year. It starts the day you're admitted as an inpatient and ends once you've gone 60 days in a row without inpatient hospital or skilled nursing care. Go back into the hospital after that, and a new benefit period begins, with a new $1,736 deductible. Two separate stays in one year can mean paying it twice. If you're tracking this for a parent, the date to watch is 60 days after they left, not January 1. Source: Medicare.gov, inpatient hospital care and 2026 costs pages.

Within one benefit period, hospital and skilled nursing days break down like this:

• Hospital days 1 to 60: $0 once you've paid the deductible.
• Hospital days 61 to 90: $434 a day.
• Hospital days 91 to 150: $868 a day, using up your 60 lifetime reserve days. After those, you pay all costs.
• Skilled nursing days 1 to 20: $0. Days 21 to 100: $217 a day. After day 100, you pay all costs.

Source: CMS, 2026 Medicare Parts A & B fact sheet; Medicare.gov, 2026.

What does the doctor side (Part B) cost?

The standard Part B premium is $202.90 a month in 2026, up from $185.00 in 2025. Higher incomes pay more; that's the IRMAA section below. The yearly deductible is $283, paid once each calendar year. Source: CMS, 2026 Medicare Parts A & B fact sheet.

After the deductible, Medicare pays 80% of the approved amount for most covered services and you pay 20%. The paperwork calls your share coinsurance; most people just call it the 20%. That split holds as long as your doctor accepts the Medicare-approved amount as full payment, which is called accepting assignment. And Original Medicare puts no yearly cap on that 20% by itself, which is the main job people hire a Medigap (supplement) plan to do. If you're weighing Plan G against Plan N, our Plan G vs Plan N guide compares them without steering you. Source: Medicare.gov, 2026 Medicare costs.

What actually lands in the Social Security check?

Most people have the Part B premium taken out of their Social Security payment before it arrives, so here's the arithmetic everyone does at the kitchen table. Say the monthly benefit is $2,000 before deductions. Subtract the $202.90 Part B premium, and $1,797.10 is what reaches the bank. If a drug plan premium or an IRMAA surcharge is also being withheld, those come out too. The subtraction works the same at any benefit amount, and this page won't guess at next year's cost-of-living adjustment. Source: Medicare.gov, how to pay Part A & Part B premiums, 2026.

Is there really a cap on drug costs now?

Yes. Medicare drug coverage (Part D) now has a yearly out-of-pocket cap: it started at $2,000 in 2025 and is $2,100 for 2026. The cap adjusts each year with drug spending. Once your out-of-pocket spending on covered drugs reaches $2,100, you pay $0 for covered drugs for the rest of the calendar year. Source: CMS, Final CY2026 Part D Redesign Program Instructions; Medicare.gov, 2026.

Two wrinkles are worth knowing. Your plan's monthly premium does not count toward the cap; only spending on covered drugs does. And some payments made on your behalf do count, such as help from the Extra Help program or a state pharmaceutical assistance program, so the cap can arrive sooner than your own receipts suggest. Source: Medicare.gov, costs for Medicare drug coverage, 2026.

What is IRMAA, and who pays it?

IRMAA stands for income-related monthly adjustment amount: a surcharge added to your Part B and Part D premiums when your income crosses a set line. For 2026, it starts once modified adjusted gross income goes above $109,000 for a single filer or $218,000 on a joint return. Source: CMS, 2026 Medicare Parts A & B fact sheet.

Two things about it surprise people. First, the two-year lookback: your 2026 premium is based on your 2024 tax return, the one you filed in 2025. A big income year in 2024, say from a home sale or a large retirement account withdrawal, can show up as a 2026 surcharge even if you're fully retired now. Source: SSA, Medicare premiums (uses the tax return filed in 2025 for tax year 2024), 2026.

Second, the brackets are cliffs, not ramps. Going even $1 over a line puts you in the next bracket for the whole year. At the first line, that means $81.20 a month added to Part B, which is $974.40 over twelve months, for one extra dollar of income two years ago. Source: CMS, 2026 IRMAA bracket tables.

If your income has dropped since 2024 because of a life-changing event, and Social Security's list includes retirement, you can ask them to use your newer, lower income instead. The request is Form SSA-44. Source: SSA, Form SSA-44, 2026.

Why do these numbers change every year?

CMS sets the next year's premiums and deductibles each fall; the 2026 set was published on November 14, 2025. And if you're in a drug plan or a Medicare Advantage plan, it must send you its own changes in a letter called the Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC, so you receive it by September 30. Our guide to reading the ANOC letter shows where the cost changes hide, and the AEP game plan covers the fall window for acting on them. Source: CMS newsroom, November 14, 2025; Medicare.gov, Plan Annual Notice of Change, 2026; 42 CFR 422.2267(e)(3) (ANOC receipt no later than September 30).

Quick answers

Do I pay the Part A deductible just once a year?

Not necessarily. It's $1,736 per benefit period, and a new benefit period starts if you're admitted again after 60 days with no inpatient or skilled nursing care. Two separate stays in one year can mean paying it twice.

Does my drug plan's premium count toward the $2,100 cap?

No. The cap counts your out-of-pocket spending on covered Part D drugs, plus certain payments made on your behalf, like Extra Help. Premiums sit outside it, no matter how much you pay in premiums over the year.

I just retired and my income dropped. Am I stuck with IRMAA?

Maybe not. Social Security counts work stoppage as a life-changing event, and Form SSA-44 asks them to use your newer, lower income instead of the two-year-old tax return. A free SHIP counselor can help with the paperwork; the official contacts are listed below.

Where do these numbers come from?

CMS publishes them, usually each November for the year ahead. Everything on this page traces to the CMS fact sheet dated November 14, 2025, the CMS Part D redesign instructions, and Medicare.gov and Social Security's own pages.