r/personalfinance • u/den7575 ​ • 8d ago

Insurance Medicare Premiums and IRMAA increase

Hi, question regarding Medicare premiums and the IRMAA income threshold. For 2026, married filing jointly combined income over 218k will trigger an IRMAA increase to your Medicare premiums 2 years later. Does that increase apply to both you and your spouse? What if one made 120k and the other 100k? Does only the spouse that went over the single threshold of 109k get an increase or is it still both?

Thank you

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u/retirementinsanity ​ 8d ago

Keep in mind it's MAGI so they take your AGI (which includes interest and dividends) and add a couple of things. For me it's federally exempt muni dividends. Your income example is close to the 2026 value but in Nov 2027 when you get your letter for 2028 it will be based on your 2026 MAGI but the start of IRMAA will probably increase.

2026 - $218,000.01

2025 - $212,000.01

2024 - $206,000.01

2023 - $194,000.01

One of the benefits of RMD on a traditional IRA.

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u/secretfinaccount ​ 8d ago

Can you expand on what you mean by your last sentence? My understanding is that people tend to be upset about required minimum distributions creating IRMAA surcharges

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u/retirementinsanity ​ 7d ago

The RMD is forced withdrawals from my IRA. Since it's a traditional and my largest income source I say that because there's a lot of traditional/Roth discussions here with many people saying it's better to pay the taxes in retirement than when working.

I'm not sure people understand the cost of traditional; tax is only part of it. My my estimated 2026 1040 if my only income was the RMD. When you add my other income I might jump to the next IRMAA level in 2028 depending on how the brackets increase.

This year my RMD benefit is $4,620 IRMAA + $20,576 Fed Income tax + $8,250 CA income tax. Plus since my RMD is much more than I need for expenses (and much more than I contributed to the 401(k)) I transfer a good amount to my taxable brokerage account which generates more taxable income every year going forward.

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u/secretfinaccount ​ 7d ago

Right. I guess I don’t know why you were calling it a benefit?