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Most of my working life was not subject to Social Security taxes (yes, this can happen legitimately in the US), therefore my Social Security benefit is very modest.

My Medicare premium is withheld from my SS benefits, and in 2020 my monthly SS benefit was only a few dollars per month more than my monthly Medicare premium. Moreover, because they recalculated my IRMAA for 2019 early in 2020, I owed them $$ from 2019 and they stopped sending me SS checks early in 2020. OK, no problem. But at a few dollars per month, it would have taken them about 10 years to recoup what they overpaid me in 2019, but they didn't seem to have figured this out. Now it is 2021, and my Medicare premium is more than my SS benefit.

I am curious: What will happen eventually? The amount I owe will become larger each month. Is Medicare eventually going to send me a bill? Will they start sending me monthly (or quarterly or yearly) bills? I don't want to ask them, because why stir them up, particularly now, when nobody needs more to do.

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    Medicare's hold harmless limits the Medicare Part B premium increase to no more than the cost of living increase provided by Social Security so I would think this would prevent the differential from becoming larger.
    – Bob Baerker
    Jan 27, 2021 at 2:20
  • @Bob Baerker Thanks. I thought that mightpossibly be the case. However, I still owe them nearly $1,000 from 2019 when they undercharged me because they calculated the IRMAA using the wrong data. Oh well .....
    – ab2
    Jan 27, 2021 at 21:20
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    Not that you can request to base the IRMAA calculation on the current year, instead of two years back; this makes sense if your income is now significantly different. Not sure if this helps your situation.
    – Aganju
    Jan 28, 2021 at 2:34
  • @Aganju Thanks, but the bracket of IRMAA I am in has not changed since they (correctly) kicked me into a higher bracket.
    – ab2
    Jan 28, 2021 at 18:09

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