Here’s a fact sheet. Premiums for part B are based on income and single or joint household. They are the same for wveryone with same income and do not vary by state or county. Additional parts can cost extra, depending on the plan selected, medical underwriting, income, etc.
https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/2019-medicare-parts-b-premiums-and-deductibles
If you have questions, call your state Dept of Health, Office on Aging, SHIP program and they will help at no charge.
@Iglooo any chance your spouse or you have high earnings? If so, you pay an IRRMA, an increased cost, based on your higher earnings.
I pay the additional costs for both my Medicare part a and b, and an additional added cost for my RX coverage.
I think my total cost is in the $180 a month range. It might be a little more.
@thumper1 We had an abnormally large income that year. Between the two of us, it would be cheaper to get an outside insurance almost.
Maybe someone else knows. Once you become Medicare eligible, you need to sign on within a certain time window…or you get charged a penalty…forever.
If you continue an employee sponsored plan, you don’t need to sign up for Medicare and you are not penalized. Well…you complete something to indicate you have an employee sponsored plan.
I’m not sure if a private plan gives you that penalty exemption.
@calmom…do you know?
@Iglooo - there is a process for appealing the IRMAA determination.
Links:
https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/omha/the-appeals-process/part-b-premium-appeals/index.html
https://q1medicare.com/PartD-IRMAAReconsiderationAppealsPartD.php
Thanks @calmom
One of the life changing events is loss or reduction of income. @Iglooo perhaps this applies to you if you have retired! Or if you had a one year bump in income that won’t happen again.
Worth doing!
One year bump. Is that a qualifying event for an appeal? Or would they say it will go down next year?
I would file that appeal and see. You will need to pay the excess cost while the appeal is considered…but it’s worth a try.
I appealed my IRMAA determination a month or so ago, due to a life changing circumstance. I took my letter from Medicare to the nearest SS location. I talked to someone - he fiddled around on his computer and voila: done! He told me to expect a letter of confirmation from SS in about 10 business days: got it! Overall, it took about an hour of my time.
Nope, not on the list of the events on the url that calmom posted.
Yup, that’s exactly what they will say.
Yeah, I was afraid of that.
Aargh.
So in my mailbox today, after business hours, Dec 21 – is my Medicare Premium Bill. Due by December 25th.
OK… I figured out that the world won’t come to an end if the quarterly payment gets there late — but you’d think they would be able to send out bills on time.
I’ll set up automatic payments for the future… but this was my first bill.
for the past few months I have been calling silverscript to pay them. The first time when I called they said the first bill would come 45 days later which would have gone into the second month.
The Plan D part was easy – I just signed up online for autopay at the provider site.
The problem I referenced is with the Medicare Part B premium. On a whim I called the 800 number for Medicare and I was actually put through to an agent at 9:30pm west coast time (During the government shut down, no less).
The agent told me that all the bills went out late to “everybody” this month and they didn’t know why. (er, really?).
Anyway, I’ve pretty much figured out that they don’t cut off the Part B until something like 90 days out, after a second bill and a third, “delinquent” notice… but I still think it would have been nice to have received the bill sometime reasonably in advance of the actual due date.
When I went on Medicare B the first bill was late but was for the next 6 months (I think - may need to check with my husband). Then the next one was for 3 months. I am paid up through January but I am starting to take social security in January (so first check will come in Feb) and will have Medicare B deducted. So it looks like I’ll be paying for January twice. I wonder if they will refund me the one I already paid without me having to run through hoops (the one already paid is at the old rate I think).
After the phone call we made to sign up DH for Parts A & B, we got a letter that reiterated the information he gave them. One of the statements is, “I want to enroll in Part B of Medicare.” Part A is not mentioned. Is that a problem? Should we call to check on it? His birthday is in March, so we’re not pressed for time.
Off topic, but I thought I should share in case there are any other parents in our situation. If you have a child who was classified as disabled before the age of 22, once you start collecting SS benefits, the child will be eligible for more funds and also may be able to work more without having benefits reduced. I never knew that before! DH is going to wait until he’s 70 to start collecting, but it’s good to know this now.
My invoices arrived promptly (and if I recall, we enrolled in Part B on the same date). however, I’ve now received two letters about IRMMA, one for Part B and one for Part D, which makes sense from old tax returns. however, I’ve appealed the IRMMA fee since I was terminated thru no fault of my own. No response from the Grand Poobah so far — its been 45 days. So, I just sent in another Appeal form.
@ swimcatmon Husband was in the situation;his first ss check do not include that month deduction for Medicare automatically.
Thanks @mabel - hope that’s the case. I’m just mostly relieved the SS application is finally processed. Applied Oct 16 and they just finished processing it yesterday (not that I was checking online every day or anything 
).