Medicare & IRMAA
Hi Terry
So glad to see you addressed this in your recent Tribune column. In short, I have health insurance through the federal govt- my long time employer. But after 2 years without it I decided to add Medicare part b just in case. My premium this year was $203. Now, because of a one time time big capital going last year my premium is going to $690 because of IRMAA. My question- should I just cancel Medicare part b & relieve myself of this exorbitant expense? My income won’t be nearly as high in other years. I went from $100,000 normal to $260,000 this one year
Terry Says
ooh — you picked the wrong time to sign up for Medicare Part B. There is a two-year lookback for the IRMAA adjustment, so it might take at least two years for you to fall below the bracket if you were to cancel. I don’t know enough about the limitations of your Federal coverage to advise on whether to cancel. But that certainly looks like one solution, assuming your Federal coverage alone does not leave you exposed to significant out-of-pocket expense.
I think you should talk to the government office that handles your insurance to see if your exposure is more than the roughly $8500 in premiums you’d save by getting out of Part B.
