By Alex Moore
The standard premium for Medicare Part B has increased faster than inflation as measured by the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). Last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) announced that the standard Medicare Part B premium for 2026 would be $202.90, an increase of nearly 10 percent from 2025’s premiums of $185.00. That’s more than three times this year’s COLA, announced this October at 2.8 percent.
What’s most troubling, though, is that this is not a recent trend. As shown in the table below, Part B premiums have now increased faster than the COLA for three consecutive years and in seven of the last 10 years. Over this period, Part B premiums have increased by an average of 5.3 percent per year, while COLAs have only averaged 3.1 percent.
Inflation on Part B Premiums vs. Social Security COLAs, 2017-2026
Year Standard Part B Premium Inflation on Part B Inflation COLA Implemented
2026 $202.90 9.7% 2.8%
2025 $185.00 5.8% 2.5%
2024 $174.80 6.0% 3.2%
2023 $164.90 -3.1% 8.7%
2022 $170.10 14.5% 5.9%
2021 $148.50 2.7% 1.3%
2020 $144.60 6.7% 1.6%
2019 $135.50 1.1% 2.8%
2018 $134.00 0.0% 2.0%
2017 $134.00 10.0% 0.3%
Unfortunately, while the government does have some measures in place to protect seniors from their healthcare costs rising faster than their incomes, those measures generally fall short. Medicare’s “hold harmless” provision limits the rise in Medicare Part B premiums deducted from Social Security benefits to no more than a given year’s COLA, but that basically means many seniors get their COLAs merely reduced instead of overtaken altogether. However, this provision does not apply to beneficiaries who are new to Medicare or those whose income is high enough to pay more than the standard premium.
So, what should Congress do to solve this problem? A first step would be tying Medicare Part B premiums directly to the COLA: If your benefits go up 3 percent, so will your premium. However, that would likely cause eventual funding issues if healthcare costs continue to rise faster than inflation in the overall economy. Long-term, the focus should be lowering the cost of care relative to other expenses. More preventative care for seniors, better dental and vision and hearing coverage, and more power for Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
For TSCL, this is an important issue that we will be focusing on intently moving forward. The disparity between COLAs and Part B premium increases has gone on for too long, and American seniors don’t deserve to keep seeing their benefits falling further behind.