What a year of Medicare costs in 2026

These are the 2026 amounts from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medigap and Advantage premiums are set by insurers instead, and vary by ZIP code, age and plan design.

A benefit period is not a calendar year. It opens on admission and closes after sixty consecutive days without inpatient hospital care, so two separate stays can mean two deductibles in the same twelve months. Days 61 through 90 cost $434 daily, and the sixty lifetime reserve days cost $868 each.

Skilled nursing after a qualifying stay is fully covered for twenty days, then $217 a day through day 100. Most Medigap policies pick up the hospital deductible and those daily charges, and that is where a large share of the policy’s value sits.

Nearly everyone pays $202.90 a month in 2026, typically withheld from a Social Security check. Past the $283 deductible you owe 20 percent of the approved amount with no annual limit. Closing that gap is precisely the job of a supplement or an Advantage plan.

Larger incomes pay an income-related monthly adjustment amount on top. It is calculated from the tax return filed two years earlier, so a one-time event like selling a home can lift the premium for a year. If income later drops for a qualifying reason, form SSA-44 asks Social Security to use newer figures.

The drug benefit now stops at a real number. Once your out-of-pocket spending on covered drugs hits $2,100 in 2026, covered prescriptions cost you nothing for the remainder of the calendar year. Covered insulin is capped at $35 a month per product, and recommended adult vaccines carry no charge.

Before that ceiling, what you pay depends entirely on the plan: a deductible as high as $615, then tiered copays, then a middle stage of shared costs. Two plans with nearly identical premiums can differ by hundreds of dollars over a year on the same prescriptions.

A zero-premium Advantage plan means nothing added to Part B, not an absence of cost. Copays continue, and you can still reach the plan’s out-of-pocket limit. The federal in-network maximum for 2026 is $9,250, and many plans set a lower figure.

Supplement premiums depend on the letter, your age, your ZIP code, tobacco history and the carrier’s pricing method. Plan G for a new 65-year-old commonly lands between $100 and $200 a month depending on the state. Household discounts for a spouse on the same policy are common, so ask.

Extra Help, formally the low-income subsidy, can cut drug premiums and copays substantially. It costs nothing to check, and we will point you to the application if it looks promising.