Chapter 16: Choosing Coverage
The worksheets from Chapter 16 of Fifty-Five. Type your own numbers, or try an example from the book to see how each one works.
Comparing a year on each road
What a year could cost on each road, Original Medicare with a supplement and Part D or Medicare Advantage, in a light-use year and a heavy-use year, including IRMAA.
The formula: Original Medicare + supplement + Part D: (Part B premium + supplement premium + Part D premium + Part D IRMAA) × 12 + Part B deductible = Yearly cost. Medicare Advantage: (Part B premium + plan premium + Part D IRMAA) × 12 + Your copays = Yearly cost. In a heavy-use year, use the plan's out-of-pocket maximum for your copays.
The calculator needs JavaScript. The paper worksheet below does not: it is the same arithmetic, written out.
The paper worksheet
Original Medicare road, per month: Part B premium (with any IRMAA) $__________ + Supplement premium $__________ + Part D premium $__________ + Part D IRMAA $__________ = Monthly total $__________
Monthly total $__________ × 12 = $__________. Plus Part B deductible $__________ = Yearly cost, light year or heavy year $__________
Medicare Advantage road, per month: Part B premium (with any IRMAA) $__________ + Plan premium $__________ + Part D IRMAA $__________ = Monthly total $__________
Monthly total $__________ × 12 = $__________. Plus your copays $__________ = Yearly cost, light year $__________
Monthly total × 12 $__________. Plus the out-of-pocket maximum $__________ = Yearly cost, heavy year $__________
Walk through it, step by step
- Find your Part B premium, including any IRMAA, from your Social Security letter or the 2026 table in Chapter 11. Write it in both columns.
- Write the premium for the supplement you're considering, and for the Medicare Advantage plan.
- On the Original Medicare road, write the Part D plan premium. On the Advantage road, write $0 if drugs are included in the plan premium.
- Write your Part D IRMAA in both columns. It's the same on both roads.
- Add each column. Multiply each by 12.
- Original Medicare road: add the Part B deductible, $283 in 2026. That's your yearly cost, light or heavy, with a plan like Plan G.
- Medicare Advantage road: add your expected copays for a light year. Then do it again with the plan's out-of-pocket maximum for a heavy year.
- Compare the light-year and heavy-year totals. Ask yourself which risk you'd rather carry.
Check your answer
- The Part B and Part D IRMAA lines must be the same in both columns. If they aren't, you've copied something wrong.
- The Advantage road's heavy-year cost can't be less than its light-year cost.
- Drug costs: if your drugs are expensive, add what you'd expect to pay for them on each road. Medicare Advantage out-of-pocket maximums cover medical care, not Part D drugs.
Figures this worksheet uses, and where they come from: The 2026 Part B deductible, $283 for the year (CMS, 2026 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles); The 2026 standard Part B premium, $202.90 a month (CMS, 2026 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles).