Medicare Premiums, Deductibles, and Copays in 2024

Here are the Medicare premiums, deductibles, and copay amounts for 2024.

Medicare Part A Costs and Deductible

Part A deductible. In 2024, you'll also pay a $1,632 deductible for each benefit period in which you use hospital or skilled nursing inpatient care.

Part A copayments. The first 60 days in the hospital, and the first 20 days in a skilled nursing facility, are included with your Part A deductible. After that, you'll have to pay the following copays.

• Hospital days 61-90: $408 coinsurance per day of each benefit period
• Hospital days 91 and beyond: $816 coinsurance per each lifetime reserve day for each benefit period
• Skilled nursing days 21-100: $204 coinsurance per day of each benefit period.

Part A premiums. Almost 99% of people don't pay a monthly premium for Medicare Part A (hospital insurance). But if you have to pay for Part A because you or your spouse don't have a long enough work history, you'll pay between $278 (if you have 30-39 work credits) and $505 (if you have fewer than 30 work credits).

Medicare Part B Premiums and Deductible

Part B deductible. The Part B deductible for 2024 has increased, to $240 per year.

Part B premiums. The standard Medicare Part B premium is increasing by $9.80 per month in 2024, to $174.70. And about 7% of Medicare beneficiaries have to pay a higher monthly premium because their income is over a certain amount.

If your 2022 adjusted gross income was over $103,000 (or $206,000 for a couple), your monthly premiums in 2024 are as follows:

Limits on therapy. Medicare no longer puts a cap on the number of outpatient physical therapy, speech-language pathology, or occupational therapy visits it will pay for. But the Medicare program still has thresholds for "authorization purposes," as follows (for 2024):

• outpatient physical therapy and speech-language pathology combined: $2,330
• occupational therapy: $2,330.

If your therapist tells Medicare that therapy above the threshold is medically necessary and Medicare approves, you can go over the threshold.

Medicare Part C Costs

Beneficiaries of Part C, also called Medicare Advantage, have to pay the monthly Part B premium as well as a monthly Advantage plan premium, although over two-thirds of Advantage plans don't charge a monthly premium. And Medicare Advantage plans generally have lower costs than traditional Medicare plans and they offer more services.

The average premium for Medicare Advantage plans in 2024 has increased from $15 to about $18 a month. But, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), 73% of Medicare Advantage enrollees won't see an increase in their monthly premiums.

Medicare Part D Premiums and Deductible

Part D deductible. The maximum Part D deductible for 2024 is $545 per year (though some plans waive the deductible completely).

Part D premiums. Part D premiums vary depending on the plan you choose, with an average of $55 per month. (But some plans are premium-free, particularly those that are packaged with a Medicare Advantage plan.)

If your adjusted gross income is over $103,000 (or $206,000 for a couple), you'll also pay a monthly adjustment amount to Medicare in addition to your monthly Part D premium.

Here are the Part D additional amounts for individuals making over $103,000 and married couples making over $206,000:

Donut hole coverage in 2024. You no longer have to pay the full amount of your drug costs while in the "donut hole" (formerly called the "coverage gap"). Once your total yearly drug expense reaches $5,030 (and until your total out-of-pocket costs reach $8,000), you'll pay no more than 25% of your drug costs for both brand-name and generic drugs. This might mean that, while you're in the donut hole, you'll pay more than you've been paying in copays or coinsurance, but many plans will charge less than the 25% for some prescriptions.

When you're on the other side of the donut hole (once you've reached $8,000 in medication costs), you won't pay any copayment or coinsurance amount for covered drugs.

Note that you don't have to spend $5,030 in copayments to get to the donut hole. The amount of your medication expenses that apply to the donut hole threshold depends on whether you've mostly spent money on brand-name drugs or generic drugs. While only your copay for generic drugs (the 25%) counts toward the $5,030 threshold, 95% of the cost of brand-name drugs (your copay and most of the insurance company's cost of the drug) counts toward the donut hole threshold.

The federal government offers subsidies to pay for Part D for those with low income (called Extra Help), which has changed significantly for 2024. See Nolo's article on Extra Help for Part D for more information.

_{Effective date: Jan 01, 2024}

_Sources:

_{CMS, 2024 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles
Federal Register, 88 FR 71555}