Medicare Part D

2027 Medicare IRMAA: Brackets for Lafayette, La.

Lafayette, La. — As Medicare's fall Annual Enrollment Period runs through Dec. 7, higher earners here have another number to watch besides premiums and drug costs: the income thresholds that trigger IRMAA, the surcharge added to Part B and Part D. For 2026, the first threshold starts above $109,000 for a single filer, and it can catch retirees by surprise the year after a big income event.

What IRMAA Actually Is

IRMAA stands for the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount. It's not a separate bill from a private plan — it's an extra amount the Social Security Administration adds to your standard Medicare Part B premium and, if you have Part D drug coverage, to your Part D premium too. It applies whether you get Part D through a stand-alone drug plan or bundled into a Medicare Advantage plan.

The key thing to understand: IRMAA is set by your income, not by the plan you choose. Switching plans during AEP won't make an IRMAA surcharge go away.

The IRMAA Income Thresholds

For 2026, IRMAA kicks in when your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is above:

• $109,000 for someone filing single
• $218,000 for a married couple filing jointly

Those are the starting points. Above them, IRMAA is tiered — the higher your income, the higher the surcharge, with the top tier reserved for the highest earners. Married people who file separately have their own, much tighter rules and hit IRMAA at a much lower income.

Medicare uses your tax return from two years earlier to set this. So your 2027 IRMAA is based on your 2025 IRS return. That two-year lookback is where most surprises come from.

Why the Two-Year Lookback Trips People Up

If you sold a house in 2025, took a large IRA distribution, converted funds to a Roth, or had a one-time capital gain, that income shows up on your 2025 return — and it can push you over an IRMAA threshold in 2027, even if your income is now much lower in retirement.

The brackets are also "cliffs." Going even one dollar over a threshold moves you into the next tier for the whole year. That makes tax planning around retirement income especially important for people close to a line.

How You'll Find Out — and How to Appeal

If IRMAA applies to you, Social Security sends a predetermination notice, usually late in the year, explaining the amount and how it was calculated. The surcharge is then taken out of your Social Security check along with your Part B premium, or billed directly if you're not yet collecting Social Security.

You can request a new decision if you've had a life-changing event that reduced your income. Qualifying events include:

• Marriage, divorce, or the death of a spouse
• You or your spouse stopping work or reducing hours
• Loss of pension income
• An employer settlement payment

The form is SSA-44, and you file it with the Social Security Administration. Bring documentation of the event and your expected new income.

What This Means During Open Enrollment in Lafayette

Lafayette is in Lafayette Parish, where Medicare beneficiaries have a range of Medicare Advantage and stand-alone Part D options to review through Dec. 7. IRMAA doesn't change which plans are available to you, but it does change your total monthly cost picture, because the surcharge is added on top of whatever Part D premium your plan carries.

A few 2026 program-level facts worth pairing with your IRMAA planning:

• Part D now has a hard out-of-pocket cap ($2,100 in 2026, $2,400 in 2027) on covered drugs.
• The Part D deductible maximum is $615 in 2026 ($700 in 2027).
• The old coverage gap ("donut hole") is gone; Part D has three phases now.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread drug costs across the calendar year in monthly amounts instead of paying large sums at the pharmacy counter.

None of those change your IRMAA amount, but together they shape your true out-of-pocket cost for the year.