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How are Medicare benefits changing for 2026?
Changes to 2025 Medicare coverage include a $2,000 cap on Part D out-of-pocket costs, small reductions in the average premium for Medicare Advantage and Part D plans, increases for Medicare Part B and Part A premiums and cost-sharing, and adjustments to income-related premium surcharges for Part B and Part D.
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What is the income-related monthly adjusted amount (IRMAA)?
For 2025, high-income beneficiaries – earning over $106,000 a year – pay an IRMAA surcharge that’s added to their Part B and Part D premiums and determined by income from their income tax returns two years prior.

Home > Basic information about Medicare

Basic information about Medicare

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Medicare is a federal health insurance program created in the 1960s to provide a safety net for America’s senior citizens. The program has since been expanded to also cover people with long-term disabilities as well as those with ALS or end-stage renal disease.

Medicare is the largest single health care payer in the nation (Medicaid has more enrollees, but it’s jointly funded by the federal government and each state; Medicare is truly a single-payer system, run by the federal government).

Medicare tends to be popular with beneficiaries, and consistently receives better consumer approval than commercial health insurance. As of April 2022, there were more than 64 million Americans covered by Medicare.

Read more about Medicare eligibility and enrollment or browse our Medicare FAQs.

Learn about Medicare plans in your state. *

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