Seniors will have to pay more again for Medicare Part B next year, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B enrollees will rise by $10.30 to $185.00 in 2025 from $174.70 this year, CMS said late Friday. The premium was $164.90 in 2023. The annual deductible for all Medicare Part B beneficiaries will increase to $257 from $240 in 2024. The increases are mainly due to projected costs and usage increases, CMS said.
The jump in the 2025 Medicare Part B premium outpaces both inflation and the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). Annual inflation rose 3.2% in October and COLA for 2025 will be 2.5%, or an average of $50 more per month.
“When Part B premiums grow at a faster rate than Social Security COLAS, premium costs consume a growing portion of monthly Social Security checks,” said Mary Johnson, an independent Social Security and Medicare policy analyst who at age 73, also receives those benefits.
Since a beneficiary’s Part B monthly premium is based on income, high-income Americans also pay an Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount, or IRMAA. IRMAA affects roughly 8% of people with Medicare Part B, CMS said.
“While mostSocial Security recipients aged 65 and older will have benefits high enough to cover the $10.30 per month increase of Part B premiums from $174.70 to $185.00, the same is not true of individuals who pay higher premiums based on income,” Johnson said.
CMS said beneficiaries who are married and lived with their spouses at any time during the year, but who file separate tax returns from their spouses with modified adjusted gross income of:
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$106,000 or less will only pay the Medicare Part B premium of $185.00 per month
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More than $106,000 and less than $394,000 will pay IRMAA of $406.90 plus the standard $185.00 for a total of $591.90 monthly
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$394,000 or more will pay $443.90 in IRMAA and the standard $185.00 for a monthly total of $628.90.
2025 isn’t an outlier. Medicare Part B premiums have been rising faster than COLA for years, data show., which is part of the reason many seniors have been struggling.
From 2005 to 2024, Part B premiums increased on average by 5.5% per year, while COLAs averaged less than half that rate at just 2.6%, Johnson’s analysis showed.
“The disparity is caused in part because Medicare costs are not included in the consumer price index that’s currently used to calculate the COLA,” she said.
During that time frame, there were only four times when Part B premiums did not increase, three of which were during former President Barack Obama’s administration (2009, 2014, and 2015) and once during former President Donald Trump’s administration in 2018, she said.
