How Social Security Impacts Your Medicare Premium - Trusted Senior Specialists

There are really 5 different Medicare Part B levels of payment for people of different incomes. However, it is not just income that might impact Part B premiums: social security could also raise premiums for some higher income beneficiaries.

Can the Way You Claim Your Social Security Impact Your Part B Premiums?

Delaying social security is more common than delaying Medicare. Really, only people with major medical from a job can delay Medicare past age 65 without a penalty. However, many people decide to delay social security in order to enjoy larger payments later. The problem is that this could actually increase Part B premiums in certain situations for people with higher incomes.

This issue is illustrated in this article from Investment News. Since inflation has been practically nothing in 2015, there might not be a COLA (cost of living adjustment) in social security. However, no overall inflation doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been medical inflation, so Part B premiums and other health insurance premiums are expected to increase.

Because there is a “hold harmless” provision for Medicare, people who don’t get a COLA won’t have a Part B premium increase. However, this won’t help high-income individuals who don’t have their premiums taken from social security. Because of this, those folks who don’t qualify for “hold harmless” will have to accept a higher increase in Part B premiums because there won’t be as many people to spread the increase over.

In any case, this increase could cancel out any benefits from delaying social security, so that is one topic to discuss with a financial adviser.

Would You Like To Know More? Speak With One Of Our Licensed Insurance Agents Today