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What will Medicare actually cost you in 2026?
Most people are quoted the standard premium and then get a letter raising it. Medicare charges you on the tax return you filed two years ago — your 2026 premium is set by your 2024 income — and it goes up in cliffs, not gradually. One dollar over a line costs you the whole step.
Line 11 of your 2024 Form 1040, plus any tax-exempt interest. That is the return Medicare uses for 2026.
The moves that change this number
Your premium is set by a return you already filed, so 2026 is locked — but 2027 and 2028 are decided by what you do this year and next. The free one-page sheet has the brackets, the cliffs, and the handful of decisions that move you across them.
- A Roth conversion raises MAGI in the year you do it — and your premium two years later. Size it to stop below a cliff.
- An RMD counts. So does a big capital gain, a property sale, or exercising options.
- Form SSA-44 undoes it when income dropped for a life-changing reason. Most people never file it.
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