Healthcare Cost Calculator — What your health care will cost this year, in one number.
Pick each person’s coverage, from Medicare with a supplement to a job plan or the Marketplace. See the premiums, any income surcharge and the care you’re likely to use, then the next 15 years.
- Free to start
- No sign-up to try
- 2026 Medicare figures
Everything in one estimate
Coverage for each person, the income that sets your premiums, every line of the year’s cost and how it grows, with a range for a light year and a heavy one.
Each of you
Coverage, supplement and drug plan, for each person.
Choose Original Medicare with a supplement, Medicare Advantage, a retiree plan, a job plan or the Marketplace for each of you. Set how much care you expect this year, and type the premiums you actually pay.
Original Medicare + Medigap Plan G · $165/mo · drug plan $45/moOne of the couple on the “Both on Medicare” example
- Medicare, Advantage, retiree, job or Marketplace coverage
- A light, typical or heavy year of care
- Each person priced on their own
The year’s cost
Every premium, surcharge and bill, line by line.
Medicare sets premiums from your tax return two years back, so the calculator shows whether you pay an income surcharge and how close you are to the next line. Then every cost for each of you, marked as the official figure, your entry or a ballpark.
Estimated cost for 2026: $13,366 ± $2,300 a year · ≈ $1,110 a monthThe “Both on Medicare” example
- Part B at the published 2026 rate
- The income surcharge, and how far you are from it
- Care as a range, from a light year to a heavy one
Where the money goes 2/2
The next 15 years
How the bill grows from here.
Health costs rise faster than prices in general. Set both rates, choose what happens at 65, and see each year’s estimate in today’s dollars or the dollars of the day, with a band for lighter and heavier years.
Health costs 5% a year · general inflation 2.5% · in today’s dollarsThe 15-year view on the same example
- Health and general inflation, set separately
- A move to Medicare at 65
- Today’s dollars or the dollars of the day
About the Healthcare Cost Calculator
Health coverage is priced from several pieces at once, which is why the total is hard to picture: a Part B premium set by law, an income-related surcharge that depends on a tax return filed two years ago, a supplement or Advantage plan you choose, a separate drug plan, and whatever care you actually use during the year.
This calculator puts those pieces in one place for a household of one or two people, each with their own coverage. Statutory amounts come from the published tables and are exact. Plan premiums are yours to enter — seeded values are national ballparks, not quotes. Care costs are shown as a planning range, and where a coverage choice has no yearly limit on what you could owe, it says so rather than inventing a ceiling.
It compares nothing and sells nothing: for the plans actually offered where you live, use Medicare.gov’s Plan Finder and a free SHIP counselor. This answers the budgeting question those tools leave open — what should we expect the year to cost?
What you can do
- Per-person coverage: Medicare with a supplement, Medicare Advantage, a former employer or union retiree plan, Medicare alone, a job plan, Marketplace, or other
- Income-related surcharge (IRMAA) worked out per person and per tax return
- Shows how far your income sits below the next surcharge line, and what crossing it costs
- Separate medical and prescription out-of-pocket estimates, capped where a real cap exists
- Household totals for one person or a couple, including mixed Medicare and employer coverage
- A 15-year projection with your own growth assumptions, showing when a 65th birthday or an income change moves the cost
Frequently asked questions
Can it show what health costs might do in future years?
Yes — a collapsed section under the breakdown projects the next 15 years from your own assumptions about health-cost growth, general inflation and income. Only the current year uses published figures; every later year is grown from them and labelled as projected. The projection also handles the two-year lag on the income surcharge, so a drop in income shows up two years later, and it marks the year someone turns 65 and moves onto Medicare.
Which year’s figures does this use?
The current published statutory year. Premiums, deductibles, and the income-surcharge brackets are taken from the official CMS and Social Security tables for that year, and a saved plan stays pinned to the year it was built with rather than silently restating itself in different dollars.
Why does it ask about a tax return from two years ago?
Medicare sets the income-related surcharge from the most recent return it has, which is generally the one filed two years earlier. If your income has dropped since — retiring counts as a qualifying life change — Social Security can use a more recent year instead; Form SSA-44 is how you ask.
If we are married, do we both pay the income surcharge?
Each person on Medicare pays it separately, based on the income reported on the return that covers them. For a couple who both have Medicare and filed jointly, crossing one income line therefore adds the surcharge twice — which is why the calculator shows the household cost of crossing rather than a single-person figure.
Are these real prices?
Statutory amounts are exact. Everything else is either a figure you entered or a labelled national ballpark, and out-of-pocket care is a planning range rather than a prediction. Real supplement, Advantage, and drug plan prices vary by county, carrier, and age, so confirm them against written plan documents before deciding anything.
Does it work before 65?
Yes. Coverage is chosen per person, so an employer or Marketplace plan is priced the same way — useful for households in the transition years where one person is already on Medicare and the other is not.
Related calculators
Other planning tools that pair well with the Healthcare Cost Calculator.
Photo by OPPO Find X5 Pro on Unsplash.