According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), seniors will have to pay more for Medicare Part B again next year.
The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B participants will increase by $10.30 to $185.00 in 2025, up 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 from $240 in 2024 to $257. The increases are primarily due to expected cost and usage increases, CMS said.
The 2025 Medicare Part B premium increase will exceed both inflation and the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). Annual inflation rose 3.2% in October and the 2025 COLA will be 2.5%, or an average of $50 more per month.
“When Part B premiums grow faster than Social Security’s COLAS, premium costs take up an increasing share of monthly Social Security checks,” said Mary Johnson, an independent Social Security and Medicare policy analyst who writes on Age 73 also receives these benefits.
Because a beneficiary’s monthly Part B premium is based on income, high-income Americans also pay an Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA). IRMAA affects about 8% of people with Medicare Part B, according to CMS.
“Although most Social Security recipients age 65 and older will have benefits high enough to cover the increase in Part B premiums from $174.70 to $185.00 per month from $10.30, the same applies not for individuals who pay higher premiums based on income,” Johnson said.
CMS said beneficiaries who are married and living with their spouses at any time during the year but file separate tax returns from their spouses with a modified adjusted gross income of:
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For $106,000 or less, only the Medicare Part B premium of $185.00 per month is paid
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More than $106,000 and less than $394,000 pay IRMAA of $406.90 plus the standard $185.00 for a total of $591.90 per month
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For $394,000 or more, you’ll pay IRMAA $443.90 and the standard $185.00 for a monthly total of $628.90.
2025 is not an outlier. Medicare Part B premiums have been rising faster than COLA for years, data show, which is one reason many seniors are struggling.
From 2005 to 2024, Part B premiums rose an average of 5.5% per year, while COLAs averaged less than half that rate, at just 2.6%, Johnson’s analysis found.
“The difference is partly due to the fact that Medicare costs are not included in the consumer price index currently used to calculate the COLA,” she said.
During that period, there were only four times when Part B premiums did not increase, including three during former President Barack Obama’s administration (2009, 2014 and 2015) and once during former President Donald Trump’s administration in 2018, she said .
