Medicare is an essential lifeline for older (and disabled) people.
If Social Security is a person’s only income the Medicare deduction is a big deal. Poor people may be forced into Medicare Advantage because they can’t afford the standard Medicare premiums.
For high-income retirees, the IRMAA surcharge can be a big hit, especially if the income is a taxable RMD from an IRA and not actual income.
What to Know About the Nearly 10% Climb in a Key Medicare Expense for 2026
The rapidly rising premium for Part B, which covers retirees’ outpatient services, reflects the fast pace of growth for health care costs nationally.
By Mark Miller, The New York Times, Nov. 22, 2025
…
The standard Part B premium, which covers services such as physician visits and hospital outpatient care, will be $202.90 a month — up 9.7 percent. Next year is the first time the monthly premium will exceed $200 — and it will be 66 percent higher than a decade ago.
The annual Part B deductible will also climb, to $283, up 70.5 percent over the past 10 years….
The new numbers reflect general increases in the cost of health care. National health expenditures rose about 8 percent in 2024, federal data shows, and are expected to outpace gross domestic product growth over the coming decade. Another cause for the rising Part B costs is a shift in health care delivery from hospitals to outpatient settings. More care and medications are being delivered in these settings…
Medicare spends about $80 billion more annually for Medicare Advantage enrollees than it would if they were enrolled in traditional Medicare, leading to higher spending for both Part A (which covers hospitalization) and Part B….
think about health care costs as part of an annual budgeting process that may change from year to year along with their health and medical needs. The projection should include insurance premiums, out-of-pocket expenses and any extras such as hearing, vision or dental services or an expected long-term-care need…. [end quote]
The government does provide financial assistance called Medicare Savings Programs for low-income seniors.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/business/medicare-medicaid-low-income-seniors.html
The U.S. Census Bureau reported last month that the percentage of Americans aged 65 or older living in poverty rose in 2024 to 15 percent — up from 14.2 percent in 2023 and 10.7 percent in 2021 — the only age group that saw an increase in poverty.
Health care costs are a major culprit in that increase. Medicare Part B and D premiums and cost sharing account for nearly 25 percent of average monthly Social Security benefits, according to KFF — and that figure does not include other costs, such as dental care, long-term care or premiums for supplemental Medicare coverage, known as Medigap. Taking those costs into account, health care spending consumes 39 percent of Social Security benefits on average, KFF found.
The most affluent seniors can tap into savings to meet health expenses, but that’s not the case for most. Forty percent of older households have almost no savings or other financial assets — and all but the top 20 percent lack the cushion to withstand a significant economic shock. …
Enrolling in both the Medicare Savings Programs, known as M.S.P.s, and the Low Income Subsidy, or L.I.S., can save an individual as much as $8,400 annually in Medicare premiums, deductibles, co-pays and other out-of-pocket costs…[end quote]
There are very nice, knowledgeable volunteers at SHIPA (State Health Insurance Assistance Program) who can help people with the system. But the people who need the most help are probably the least capable of finding and working with them.
Wendy