Retired, but Medicare Still Uses Your Old Salary? How to Request an IRMAA Review

A couple retires at the end of 2025. Their income falls, but their 2026 Medicare premiums still reflect the salaries they earned in 2024. Their retirement budget includes an extra charge for being high earners, even though their working years are behind them.

This can happen because Medicare generally looks back two years when determining income-related surcharges. Retirement may give them a way to ask Social Security to use more recent income information. For a household paying these charges, that review belongs on the retirement checklist.